


Fire and Forest

by Heliosthetroll



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, Fantasy, M/M, Mystery Character(s), Slow Build, Slow Burn, dragonstuck, some slight time period mixing but not really, tags added as the story continues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-06-14 18:33:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 55,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15394893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heliosthetroll/pseuds/Heliosthetroll
Summary: Dragons form bonds with humans in order to keep a treaty made between the two species to ensure peace and now Jake English is ready for his bond to be made to his dragon.





	1. Dragons Live Here

You are Jake English and today will be the biggest adventure of your life so far. Which is really saying something considering your track record! But enough of that beginner's nonsense. Today is the day when you will begin your growth from child to man and the day your real adventures begin. 

Today is the day you will begin to bond with your dragon.

Just like every person as they hit sixteen does in your island homeland you will be assigned a young dragon around the same age as you along with the rest of the kids your age at the assignment ceremony in one hour. Once assigned a dragon you will be expected to bond with the creature and use the connection you have with it to benefit both yourself, it, and both of your species and the treaties that hold them together. This is your duty as a member of your community and it will be quite the exciting adventure in your book.

You can’t wait!

You put on your best vest suit and shorts along with a bow tie and make sure your hair is somewhat combed before hopping excitedly down the stairs and rushing over to where your grandmother and little sister sit in the kitchen, your grandma making your big day big breakfast and Jade watching and petting your dog, Bec. Gosh, you sure hope the dragon you bond with gets along with Bec like your grandmother’s did. You can’t imagine ever getting rid of your loyal dog but you would have to if your bonded dragon ended up fighting with it for whatever reason in order to keep the peace with them. Your grandma’s dragon had sadly died many years ago along with your parents and their dragons during an adventure your grandma refuses to tell you about, not that you really blame her for not wanting to talk about that. It’s perfectly understandable in your book but still, you can’t help but be curious and wish you knew more about what they all were like.

But now isn’t the time to dwell on that. Now is the time for you to focus on the new adventure ahead of you!

Your grandmother turns and smiles at you as you enter, bouncing excitedly on the balls of your feet. She chuckles at your excitement. “Are you ready for today Jake?” “Of course I am gran! I’ve only been waiting for this day all my life!” Jade and her laugh at your words as she turns and plates up some scrambled eggs and pancakes along with some bacon for your breakfast. “Well then eat up so you have energy for the ceremony. There’s plenty more where this came from.” You nod and bounce over to the table in the middle of your kitchen to grab the food and take it to the dining room to scarf down it and a second serving before waving goodbye for now to your family and dashing out the door. They’ll be watching the ceremony of course but you have to get there early so the ambassador, aka the oldest human to still have a bond with a dragon, can tell you what you’ll need to do.

You try to listen as closely as you can to your instructions along with all the others around you but you’re just too excited to catch all of it. Luckily you have your close friend Jane there to help fill you in while you all wait for the crowds to form and the young dragons to arrive. Jane is more nervous than excited but you can tell that your presence is helping her as she smiles and giggles at your bouncing and sparkling eyes.

Finally, the young dragons arrive from the nearby mountain where the unbonded dragons live as there are more dragons then there will ever be humans due to their large egg clutches compared to a human’s one or maybe two at a time live birth. The unbonded dragons are much more likely to get the chance to lay eggs and have kids due to their home with other dragons rather than with humans but of course there are the times where bonded dragons will mate at which point they will leave to the mountains to care for their kids, visiting their human every once and a while to keep the bond going, until they are old enough to be bonded to their own human or to care for themselves.

The group this year seems to consist of more fire dragons than usual and a smaller amount of air dragons but you don’t mind. You don’t really care what kind of dragon though an earth one would be more suited to your tastes and interests. 

There are four main types of dragons that are discernible from each other at a glance but there are many subgroups within those four groups. There are the earth dragons which divide into rock, plant, and animal subgroups, the fire dragons which divide into lava, flame, and heat groups, the air dragons which divide into flying, gust, and wind groups, and finally the water dragons which divide into ice, liquid, and steam groups. All dragons could fly of course though some types were better than others at it and prefered to do it and each big group had a different look. Earth dragons were often brown or green and tended to have moss and other plant life growing on their tough and rocky feeling skin and scales. They also tended to be bulkier and have a harder time flying then the other types though they prefered to keep to the ground anyway since that was where there powers lay. Fire dragons on the other hand were often orange, red, or yellow and popped no matter where they were. They were often large but thin and had more hard plating and scales than an air or water dragon but not as much as an earth dragon. They had a pretty decent time at flying but most of them despised water to the point where some even disliked water dragons. Speaking of water dragons they were often slim and medium-sized, average if almost every way for a dragon and they were ok flier’s but they much prefer to shoot through the water as was their specialty. Most of the time water dragons were dark blue, purple, or pink though there were a few lighter blue ones. Air dragons were the smallest and thinnest of the dragons but that also made the them most aerodynamic and therefore the best fliers of the bunch. They were often white or grey if not sky blue. Dragons all had their own individual personalities and there weren’t defined by their typings but they often had a few common traits among them. Fire dragons were often hotheaded, bold, and competitive, air dragons were often optimistic and lighthearted with their heads in the clouds, water dragons often go with the flow if not a little depressed, and earth dragons tended to be down to earth and logical if a bit lazy.

Taking all this into account you figured your best match would be an earth dragon. Someone to help reign in your over adventurous personality and that would appreciate the earth and what it had in store for humans and dragons alike just as much as you did.

You waited patiently as person after person were bonded with their dragon, barely even paying attention. You got called up before Jane did and you could barely control yourself as the ambassador went through his speech and you said your vows over protecting the bond humans and dragons shared and blah blah blah. None of that stuff interested you. What did however was which dragon would be the one you would bond with. You looked at the crowd and found your family. Your grandmother was smiling proudly at you and your sister was giving you a thumbs up. You turned your attention to the group of young dragons waiting at the sidelines for their names to be called for their bonding and only then did you realize there was no earth dragons left in the group. Just as you realized this a name was called.

“Dirk Strider.”

A fire dragon. He was a fire dragon. You could tell it was a male as it had the extra couple of spines that reached the very back of its tail while a female dragon would have the stop a few spines before the end of the tail. He was yellow with orange stripes and other markings all over his scales and skin and had piercing orange eyes as he stepped up to say his own side of the bonding vows. You were in shock. You had never expected you would be paired to be bonded with a fire dragon. You mean, you knew it was always a possibility but you figured the pairing would be a bad match and therefore you wouldn’t be given one to bond with but here you were, bonded to a fire dragon for life. You didn’t know what to think really as you two were sent off to join the other pairs of bonded humans and dragons off to the side.

Dirk continued to watch the ceremony but you couldn’t stop watching him. You were so focused you almost missed clapping when Jane was paired with a water dragon, one of the rare pink ones in fact, named Roxy Lalonde. 

Finally, everything finished and you said goodbye to your friend and headed home with your dragon and your family. You suppose Dirk was technically part of your family now too. Gran sure seemed to be treating him that way at least. Dirk didn’t talk much, giving simple curt responses to anything said to him but you were still too focused on what to do next to even notice that he wasn’t acting like you would expect a fire dragon to act based on what you saw and were taught.

You arrived home however and your grandma snapped you into focus again when she told you to show Dirk around. The house was purposefully taller and larger than a human would need alone due to the fact that dragons were bonded with humans but even so, Dirk had some trouble getting around. Even for a fire dragon, he seemed a bit large for his age. You wondered how in the world you were to house him once he got even larger. You showed him where everything was, your room being the last stop. 

“And that’s everything chap!” He nodded and looked around your room, almost seeming to analyze every little detail of it for information. “Any questions?” He looks back to you and nods. “Yeah. Just one. Where will I sleep?” You actually hadn’t thought of that. You do tend to forget to factor in the details like that. You always had been a more big picture kind of guy. “Wherever you like I suppose!” You respond and he nods but you can almost sense a very faint bit of displeasure come off of him at your answer. You don’t know why though seeing as this allowed him to choose whatever he wanted. You would’ve been quite happy in his place! Maybe it was a dragon thing. You would have to ask your grandma about that later. She always was better at the animal and science side of things than you were. Jade too. You were more discovery and adventure than you were the details of plants and animals and how they worked like the females in your family.

Dirk walks over to a corner of your room bare of furniture though the wall still has posters and other things covering it just like every inch of wall space in your room does and sits down. He looks almost like a dog in sitting style, front legs holding the front of his body up while the back half relaxes on the floor, his tail curling around to his front. His tail is much longer than a dog’s however and nearly goes all the way across his front and he’s much larger than a dog too, his head only a couple feet down from your eight-foot tall ceiling. It’s actually kind of majestic to seem him sitting like this, looking down at you as you look up at him. Wonderous and new.

You two sit there for a while, just watching each other before you finally look away and go to sit down on the bed. Even with how long the ceremony lasted there’s still a couple hours before lunch. Goodness you hope your grandmother remembers how much and what a dragon eats because you sure don’t remember and besides, she’s the one who does the cooking unless you and Jade decide to give her a day to relax for one reason or another. You wouldn’t want to ruin things with Dirk already by giving him the wrong kind of food or by giving him too much or too little food. Do dragons even have special diets? God you need to remember to ask Jane these things later. She always is willing to help you and she’s much better at the details then you are. You make a mental note to send her a letter later asking any questions you come up with.

You get so lost in your overactive mind that you don’t even realize how awkward this silence must be for Dirk until he clears his throat. Huh. You didn’t dragons could even do that. “Oh uh sorry chap! Got a little lost in my own noggin there! Did you need anything?” He shakes his head. “Nah. Just was wondering how we were supposed to go forward with this whole bonding thing I guess.” You think for a moment before having to admit that you have no clue either. “To be honest with you chap I never really pay much attention to things like that. My grandma says I have a hyperactive mind and personality and so details are hard for me but really I just think all that nonsense is boring! I’d much rather be thinking about my next adventure than listening to someone drone on about this or that.” He nods and you swear you see the muscles in his mouth twitch just a bit though it could’ve just been your hopeful imagination acting up again. “Makes sense I guess.” You smile at him but don’t get a smile in return. It’s a bit strange but you chalk it up to another dragon thing you don’t understand and move on quickly. 

Silence falls over you both again but this time you are much more aware of it’s awkwardness and you squirm a little with the need to get up and move. Finally you can’t take it anymore and jump up from your bed and turn to Dirk. “How would you like to go on a little adventure into the woods with me chap? Help break the ice and whatnot.” He shrugs at you, another thing you were unaware dragons could do until this moment, but stands to follow you. “Sure.” He says simply. You smile and hurry down the stairs, calling to your grandmother where you are going before bursting out the door and into the streets. From there Dirk follows you, easily keeping pace without too much trouble as you rush towards the nearby forest. Most people either know you and know about your urge for adventure or chalk it up to a new bond going well already as you two race by them and just give you both a smile or chuckle. Dirk is holding his wings up above people’s heads carefully to avoid hitting anyone and his tail is dragging in a straight line behind him for the same reason. It’s nice to see that he cares about the humans around you both even as he makes sure he keeps right by your side until you both make it to the trees and crash on into the woods.

You run until you run out of breath and have to slow to a jog and finally a walk, Dirk only then finally lowering his wings and you chuckle and giggle with joy and adrenaline after your run. Stuff like that always gets your blood pumping and heart filled with joy. You can tell Dirk isn’t nearly as tired as you but you don’t mind and he doesn’t seem to either. It was a fun run either way and it’s only the beginning of your first adventure with a dragon at your side. Fire dragon or not you think this might be the start of the greatest adventure of your entire life.


	2. Sleepwalker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Night does not mean everything is peaceful nor does it mean everything is not alright. For now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time writing a story that has perspective changes in between chapters and I'm hoping that everything goes smoothly. I'll be trying my best to keep it pretty clear whose perspective it is at all times but sorry if it gets a bit hard to tell at times.

You are Dirk Strider and you have just been bonded to a human. A human that is very active and adventure loving no less. You aren’t sure how to feel about this. You never really wanted to be bonded in the first place. You had hoped you would be one of the dragons in your generation to be left behind without a bond to a human but you had been chosen to bond and now you were bonded to Jake English, a hyperactive human with seemingly no shortage of energy ever. He seemed to like to talk at least a little more than you had expected though that may just be because your family talks even less than most dragons do with each other which is saying something. Mostly you guys just communicate with looks or the very few primal noises that still mean anything even if most of them just have a general feeling rather than a true translation. When dragons started bonding with humans learning English was hard because it wasn’t made for dragon mouths and dragon mouths were not made for it but over time you’ve evolved less plating around your lips so they can move more to allow for easier pronunciation but even so many dragons still have difficulties and there are a lot of dragons, especially earth ones, who have speech impediments or just can’t say certain words. You count yourself lucky that you don’t have any of those issues and neither does anyone else in your family though you, in particular, you suspect only doesn’t have that issue due to your perfectionist nature making you practice words over and over when you were alone and younger.

Your family.

God, you miss them.

Especially Dave.

Roxy you technically have with you and if what you observed means what you think it does back at the ceremony the human she bonded with is close friends with if not in love with Jake so you should get to see her decently often. Rose and her aren’t even technically family per say but they sure as hell act and feel like it so most of the time you count it. You won’t miss Rose too much nor will you miss Bro even if you know Rose means well and that Bro only raised you like any other dragon would be raised with just a pinch more combat training. He didn’t leave any lasting marks on you or Dave but still. He was kind of a dick and you won’t miss him too much. But Dave, Dave is one you will miss. He’s the closest family member you have and while Roxy is the best sister/mother you could ever ask for Dave is what you would consider the best family member you have. Your brother and would be best friend if Roxy didn’t steal that slot. You and him had been tight. Almost inseparable really from the moment he hatched. He was your little brother and you had always seen it as your duty to be there with him and protect him. You know he doesn’t need that now, he’s thirteen and can take care of himself, but you still feel the need to shelter and protect him. You can’t from where you are so you just have to hope that he stays safe and his other friends protect him for you.

The only other family you have is Hal and… well, he’s a special case. Most humans don’t even know this, it’s a closely guarded secret of the dragons, but twins are possible for dragons to have. Two dragons can hatch from the same egg. It’s highly rare and dangerous for both baby dragons and most of the time when it happens neither survive and if the family is lucky one will. It’s almost never heard of for both baby dragons to survive but you and Hal? You both did. Hatched from one egg and you both survived. The consequence is that he doesn’t even get to have a chance at bonding because it would be way too dangerous for him to leave the mountain. He’s incredibly physically weak even if he’s amazingly bright and if he were to even attempt to make it down to the humans he would die. Bro takes care of him and doesn’t even make him do combat training like he did you and Dave but you fear for him anyway for many reasons. Bro won’t live forever for one, and for two Hal is a very proud dragon. He’s a fire dragon like you but where you and Bro are a flame subgroup and Dave is a lava subgroup he is a heat subgroup and that only makes him more jealous of you and your ability to fight and leave the mountain to bond with a human and to hunt and he wants desperately to be able to do that too and one day you fear he’ll attempt it and die.

You pray he never does that.

You are snapped out of your thoughts by Jake’s feet hitting the floor. It’s way past midnight why is he awake? You are because you have never been one to sleep but him? He had passed out pretty much as soon as the moon was in the sky. So why was he up now?

You raise your head from where it is laying on your front feet with your tail wrapped in front of it to watch him, having long since had your eyes adjust to the dark of the room. He stands and starts towards the door, seemingly not realizing you are up as well. He opens the door and heads for the stairs and you can’t help but curiously get up to follow after him. Your footsteps are near silent despite your size due to training to make them that way but his plod along noisily. Or at least noisily for the otherwise completely silent house. He has his back facing you as he walks and he doesn’t turn back towards you or speak once. You don’t speak either, curious why he choose now of all times to finally go silent and also curious as to where he is going and what is going on.

You follow Jake downstairs and to the living room where his dog, Bec you were told is its name, sleeps. However, it lifts his head when he approaches only to lower it again when it sees him as if this is a common occurrence. It only makes you more curious. He heads for the window on the other side of the room and you follow. You look out into the trees behind the house, a section of the forest Jake claims to have explored so much that it’s no longer any fun to adventure there, but then something catches your attention in the reflected view the window gives you of Jake’s face. He isn’t wearing his glasses for one and he’s told you he’s quote, ‘blinder than a bat’, without them. You had felt the need to tell him that bats aren’t actually blind in the moment but had held yourself back. And beyond that, his eyes are closed. He’s been sleepwalking this entire time. He’s been asleep and you thought he was awake. Jesus, you’re losing your touch. You need to stay on guard more. Bro would be pissed for this mistake. Whatever. You know now.

You turn to head back upstairs to lie to yourself and say you’ll sleep, assuming Bec will bark if Jake does anything stupid when you catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of your eye. Something dark grey moving through the trees. You don’t get to see what it is or any detail at all before it’s gone. All you see is a dark grey blob about your size if not a little smaller move through the trees before disappearing out of sight again. You have no idea who or what it could’ve been. Just as you turn to Jake to wake him up to ask about the wildlife around here to try and figure out what that might’ve been he turns and starts to walk again. Curious where he’ll go next you follow him.

He heads for the front door and you hesitate for a moment. You could wake him right now and that would probably be the safe and smart option but you can’t help but wonder where he’s going and if he somehow knew about the creature outside being there and his subconscious brought him there because of it. But no. What kind of dragon would you be if you let your human get hurt already? What kind of Strider would you be if you let Jake die already? 

A bad one. 

So you use your wing to block the door and as soon as the hand he had reached out to touch the doorknob hits it his eyes blink open. His emerald colored eyes stare ahead for a few moments before his hand withdraws and his eyebrows crease. He turns to face you, squinting in an attempt to see without his glasses. “Dirk? Chap is that you?” You nod before realizing he probably can’t make out what you just did and speak. “Yeah.” “Where are we? What time is it?” You shrug in response to his second question and speak again. “The front entrance. Sometime late. You almost sleep walked right out of the house.” “Oh. Well if you don’t mind chap could you help me back up the stairs and to bed? I’m still mighty tired.” “Yeah course.” 

You offer your wing for him to hold and he gently does so until you reach the stairs at which point you encounter an issue. The stairway isn’t wide enough for both of you to stand side by side and climb up. It barely even fits you, to be honest. You know the humans try their best to make their homes accommodate dragons while still being comfortable for them as well but sometimes you just wish you were back at home in your cave. You stop and Jake turns his head to you again. “Something wrong chap?” “The stairs. They aren’t wide enough for us both.” You examine the stairs for a moment and he stares at them too, both of you attempting in vain to make them wider with your gaze. Finally, you give in and do what you knew was an option from the start but had hoped you wouldn’t have to do. You gently take him by the back of his pajama shirt in your teeth and lift him like a mother dragon would with her young and place him on your back. You feel vulnerable and open to attack with him back there where you have no way of easily getting him off or hurting him if he chose to attack you even if you know he’s your bonded human and a good guy too and probably wouldn’t do that. It still feels unsafe and wrong.

But you keep your resolve and start up the stairs. He seems excited and almost overjoyed to be on your back if only for a little bit and wraps his arms around your neck when you start moving, throwing him forward a little as you had forgotten to warn him before moving. Your instinct to stay silent once again working against you just as much as it works for you you suppose. He smiles and chuckles though so you guess he doesn’t mind. He doesn’t seem to. You hope he doesn’t.

You get up the stairs before helping him down off your back again and then guiding him the rest of the way to his bedroom. From there he is familiar enough with walking around in the room without his glasses to get to his bed on his own and you return to your corner and lay down again. Only as you do you hear him pick up his glasses and slide them on instead of lay down to sleep once more. You lift your head to see what he’s doing and find him watching you. It makes you glad that as a dragon you cannot blush in the same way humans can and the only way Jake would be able to tell you feel self-conscious about his gaze is by feeling your face. And even then knowing Jake he would just assume the extra heat was normal for fire dragons like yourself and not anything abnormal.

“What?” You ask and he chuckles and shakes his head. “Nothing chap. Just thinking. You know I didn’t think you’d care about my safety so soon. I’ve heard dragons can be quite closed off.” You can feel even more heat come to the tough skin of your cheeks. “Yeah well, I figured that I’ve been bonded to you so I might as well keep you alive.” He chuckles again. “Of course chap. That makes sense to me.” You can’t help but feel like he doesn’t actually believe that but at the same time, you have no proof. You really hope that he believes you. Otherwise, the only other option would be that he thinks you’ve grown attached already and not that it was a matter of pride over your species and name. He doesn’t know how you feel about that stuff yet. You don’t want him to think you are attached to him even if you don’t fully understand why you feel that way. You just know that for some reason him thinking you are attached to him doesn’t sit right with you so you hope he believes your lie.

Either way, he continues talking. “While I was sleepwalking I had a rather strange dream.” “Yeah?” If there’s one thing you’ve learned so far about Jake it’s that if he has the energy he’s not stopping until it’s gone so it’s better to just ride it out and let him use it up than to try and get him to sleep before he’s done. “Yeah. I dreamt that I had eyes like a dragon’s, slits for pupils and the like. Beside me on one side was you only you looked hurt. Badly. You were breathing heavily and bleeding in several spots. I turned to my other side and there stood Jane and Roxy. Jane had dragon eyes as well and had a few cuts on her face and a split lip and Roxy looked beat up too though not as bad as you. I felt something trickling down from my forehead and touched it to find I was bleeding from the head and from the looks of it a few other places as well. Then I looked ahead of us to find I couldn’t see what everyone was looking at. Not exactly at least. It seemed about the size of a dragon but I couldn’t quite make out a form. It looked like a dark gray blob. Like I wasn’t wearing my glasses but there they were on my face. I tried to walk towards it to see better but then I woke up.” 

You stare at Jake for a long time.

How do you react to that really?

That almost sounded like the visions Rose claimed to have of possible futures only as a dream. Less detailed too. Maybe it was something like that? And the dark grey blob. Was that the same dark grey blob you had seen out the window? You had no idea and frankly, you didn’t even know if you wanted to know. Maybe if you ever got to see Rose again you would ask her. 

Maybe.

Probably not.

“Is something wrong chap?” Once again Jake snaps you out of your stupor and you shake your head. “No. Nothing is wrong. Just tired.” Yeah right. Like you could be tired with all the thoughts racing through your mind right now. He smiles and chuckles. “I suppose that does make sense. Sorry for keeping you up chap.” “Don’t worry about it.” You reply and he nods before laying down. Just as quickly as before he passes out and you lay your head down once more if only to stop holding it up. Sure enough, you can’t get yourself to sleep. It’s not too strange for you and you’ve adapted pretty well to operating with low sleep but you had hoped to catch up tonight if only so you were prepared for the human world. You had also been hoping to catch up because you actually had been doing this for a while out of stress for the bonding ceremony so you weren’t entirely sure how many more days you would be functional before you actually needed sleep. You hoped you had time.

You just can’t stop thinking about that dark grey blob and about Jake’s dream and his sleepwalking. All of it seems connected somehow but you just can’t quite figure out how and it’s annoying you. Maybe you will talk to Rose after all. Maybe.


	3. Daily Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a normal day in the life of Jake English.

You wake up thinking about your dream and having been awoken by Dirk to find yourself sleepwalking again but you nor him mention it. He’s already awake when you get up and realize you had forgotten to take your glasses off again before falling asleep the second time last night. Luckily they aren’t broken so you just chuckle at yourself and go to get dressed. After that it’s time to head down for breakfast like any normal day.

You arrive downstairs to find your grandmother having just finished breakfast and putting it out. You must have slept in a little because of waking up in the middle of the night last night. Oh well. She turns to you and tells you Jade is out walking Bec and will be back shortly and you thank her before sitting down. Dirk sits beside you and gran brings out an extra large serving of food for him, mostly meat and a few fruits and vegetables. You notice that Dirk seems to especially like oranges as you see him eat those first and fast. You eat and sure enough about half way into your meal Jade returns with Bec and hurries over to eat her own food before it gets too cold. Your grandma has already sat down and began eating by then but she chooses then to ask why you had been down later than usual. You’d bet your bottom dollar Jade made her wait to ask until she had come back by the way Jade turns to you and nods along with your grandmother. You simply tell her you woke up in the middle of the night and she nods. Jade seems a bit disappointed with the lack of an exciting reason but you don’t see the worth in telling them about your sleepwalking.

After breakfast gran informs you that it’s your turn to go get supplies from the market and you’re disappointed that you’ll get less time to explore today until you remember that Dirk likely has never seen a marketplace before so it’ll still be an adventure for him at least. You can be his helpful explorer guide! This perks you right back up and you almost forget to get a list of what you need from your grandmother before you leave you’re in such a rush. You’d never remember what to get without it though so you’re glad when Jade calls you back for it. Darn forgetfulness runs in the family so you’re happy one of you remembered it.

You hurry out the door after that with Dirk hot on your trail and you lead him to the market.

The marketplace is outdoors, which you’ve always been quite happy with, and each stall is brightly colored with people standing behind them selling things, chatting with people, or calling out to advertise their wares. It’s a place that’s always hustling and bustling with people and while people aren’t usually your forte so to speak this place as always felt so full of energy that sometimes you come down just to look at things and enjoy the atmosphere. That and Jane and her father and little brother usually have a stall open to sell their absolutely scrumptious desserts at.

In fact that sounds like a great place to stop first.

You hurry in and search for her stall. Dirk seems confused as you skip over some of the stalls selling things you need in your search and he doesn’t seem to like the marketplace as much as you do. There’s plenty of people around both with and without their dragons and he seems uncomfortable and anxious. Maybe he just is nervous because this is new and he’s new. You hope that’s all it is. You want him to enjoy it here with you and you want him to be able to be happy!

All the same you find Jane’s stall and hurry up. There you find Jane sending off her little brother to check if her dad is done baking the latest batch of cupcakes yet. After she’s done she turns to you and smiles. “Oh! Hello Jake! And you must be Jake’s dragon. Dirk if I remember?” Dirk nods but stays silent. “Hey Jane! Gran sent me out for supplies so I figured I’d visit you as well!” Jane chuckles. “Well you’re always welcome to visit me at home too Jake.” “I know Jane but you always have such good things for sale as well! You know I can’t help myself!” She giggles and nods. “I know Jake. Here, why don’t you pick one thing for both you and Dirk to have for free.” You smile wide and start bouncing a bit. “Really Jane? You mean it?” Jane almost never gives stuff away for free. She’s such a business lady. You suppose that’s why she runs the stall while her father bakes most of the time. She nods and swipes her arm over the stall. “Pick anything you want.” You happily look over everything and try to pick something out but it’s so hard. There’s just so much good stuff to choose from! Eventually, you manage to settle on a chocolate eclair and Dirk gets a vanilla cupcake with orange flavored icing. You chat with Jane for a while as you eat your food. Dirk is able to eat his cupcake in one bite thanks to his huge dragon mouth but he seems satisfied with it anyway and even compliments Jane for it. She beams proudly as you join in with your compliment but soon shoos you off, telling you that she needs to get back to work and you should focus on your assigned chore anyway. You thank her again for the treat before skipping off with Dirk. 

He seems a bit disappointed about something so you ask what’s up and he shrugs before speaking. “I was just hoping to see Roxy with her.” You tilt your head, unsure who he’s talking about for a moment. “Who?” “Roxy. She’s a close friend of mine. Jane ended up getting to bond with her.” He says it as if bonding with Roxy is something he wishes he could do instead of Jane so you get the feeling she’s really special to him. Maybe he wants her to be more than just a close friend? That would make sense. “Oh well, I’m sure she was just busy with other things. We’ll see her later. Maybe we can stop by Jane’s again on the way out.” He shakes his head but seems to appreciate the offer all the same. “Nah it’s fine.” “You sure chap? It wouldn’t be any trouble to just stop by.” “No, really it’s chill.” You smile and brush it out of your mind upon his confirmation and continue to lead him around the market.

You buy more meat, presumably for further Dirk meals, as well as some fish that Dirk seems interested in that isn’t on the list. You had thought water dragons would be the ones to like fish seeing as they were the swimmers but oh well. You guess diet didn’t depend on the type of dragon. That reminds you that you never asked Jane any of your questions. Shoot. Well you suppose it would’ve been awkward to ask those things in front of Dirk anyway. You’ll just stick to your letter plan. 

After buying meat and you around and buy some fruit and vegetables, making sure to grab extra oranges on the sly for Dirk. Next you head over to the blacksmith’s little area on the very end of the market where he has his forge and everything set up more permanent than the other stalls which are packed up every night. Gran and him have a deal worked out so she can get easy and cheap scrap metal for the little dohickeys her and Jade are always working on. You get the metal he’s has for her and go to leave when you notice Dirk looking over some of the other stuff set out to show off what he can make. He seems interested in the swords in particular for whatever reason. You shrug it off and get his attention before continuing along your path back to the other shops.

You buy and few more miscellaneous things before your list is filled out and it’s time to head back home. But first it’s about time for a lunch break and you have the perfect spot to get some grub. You say as much to your companion and he asks you where you’re going. You tell him it’ll be a surprise and then ran off with him on your tail once more. From there you bring him to your favorite restaurant of all time, The Blue Lady. It’s run by the Nitram family whom you only ever really see when you come to the restaurant but you get along with them all really well. The eldest Nitram is often out taking care of animals in the woods and helping the dragons, you’re pretty sure he’s going to love being the ambassador when it gets to be his turn, so you don’t see him often but you see him enough to know he’s a great guy. The middle Nitram is named Rufioh and he’s the one you hang out with the most though you can tell he’d rather be out with his father than cooped up at the restaurant. Sadly his little brother Tavros is paralyzed from the waist down and so Rufioh has to help him out a lot. From what you can tell Rufioh doesn’t hold it against the little guy which is good because Tavros is already very shy and self-conscious but that doesn’t stop Rufioh from longing for more. Now that you think about Rufioh is about your age isn’t he? Maybe he has his dragon now! That should help him take care of stuff around the place. You’ll have to ask. You know he’s been wanting a dragon for a long time. His father’s dragon is always out with him so you don’t know much about her besides that she’s an air dragon gust subgroup. Rufioh seems blind to it mostly but sometimes Tavros makes the comment that she and her offspring can be cruel especially the youngest one. You don’t judge people until you meet them so you mostly stay out of that.

Anyway, you lead Dirk to The Blue Lady and walk on in and to your favorite spot in the corner. It’s right by and window that points towards the forest as well as near enough to the kitchen that you often get your food first if a large amount of orders comes out all at once. The building is new, Rufioh says his dad and his dragon built it themselves when they were younger, and pretty accommodating to dragons with high ceilings and plenty of space between tables for walking. Of course this leads to less patrons but no one in the family really minds and it’s nice to be able to come here and only have to deal with a few people making chatter as you eat and talk with your own pals. As well as the other dragon accommodations each table is wide enough that a dragon can sit at each end and not be uncomfortable or in anyone else’s space. You find yourself noticing more and more ways your home accommodates dragons and more and more ways they could become even more accommodating now that you have your own dragon. It’s pretty cool and interesting to think about it all.

Once you both are seated Rufioh walks over to both with menus. He’s beaming as he puts them down. “Hey, Jake!” “Hey, Rufioh! You know I don’t need this right?” You gesture to your own menu and he chuckles. “I know but I figured your friend here might want one and it’d seem weird not to bring one for you two.” You chuckle. “I suppose it would chap. Speaking of my friend, Rufioh this is Dirk, my bonded dragon. Dirk, this is Rufioh. He’s a good friend of mine.” “Nice to meet you, man. Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know Horuss Zahhak would ya? He’s my bonded dragon.” Rufioh says and Dirk actually seems to recognize the name at least a little, his eyes showing a faint spark of recognition. “Yeah actually. He and I saw each other occasionally. Wouldn’t really call us friends per say but we got along. Had a few shared interests.” Rufioh smiles wide and says that catchphrase of his that he always says when he’s happy. “Bangarang!” You have no idea where he got that from but you can’t judge him too harshly when you have more than a few weird things you say as well. Dirk seems a little confused by it but makes no comment. You order your usual drink, a glass of your favorite energy drink, and turn to Dirk to see what he wants. He orders a dragon sized glass of orange juice and Rufioh nods and heads off to fulfill your orders. 

You’re starting to get the idea Dirk really likes oranges.

Dirk looks down at the food menu and you give him some peace to decide what he wants, turning to look out the window. You’ve always found the forest outside the village fascinating despite the dangers and even just imagining it and daydreaming about exploring it to its fullest is amazing to you. Of course your grandma always says both you and Jade have some of the most active imaginations she’s ever seen so that might have a factor in that part. Either way you just can’t get enough of adventuring out in the woods just like Jade can’t get enough of caring for the plants and animals out there and her nor your gran can get enough of building their little creations. You never understand how any of their things work but they’re cool and help make live and exploring easier so you don’t complain.

You turn back to Dirk after a bit to find him staring at you, your drinks having been delivered by presumably Tavros since nothing was said to you. Poor little guy must’ve felt so awkward with the mostly silent Dirk. You keep telling him to have more confidence in himself and Rufioh has been too and you can tell he’s trying but it’s really difficult for him and you can’t help but feel sad for him and at least partially relate. 

Anyway, you tilt your head at Dirk and speak. “Is something up Dirk?” He must’ve been just as lost in thought as you because he shakes his head before refocusing on you and speaking. “Nah. Just thinking.” It makes you curious as to what exactly he was thinking about but before you can ask Tavros rolls up to get your orders and sure enough you can tell he’s nervous about talking to Dirk. Well he’s nervous about talking to you both really but Dirk especially. This distracts you as you try to make him feel as comfortable as possible and order your usual, a burger with fries, and Dirk orders a large steak done medium rare. Tavros quickly writes your orders down before rolling away again in his wheelchair and by then you’ve completely forgotten about Dirk staring at you.

The both of you make idle conversation until your food arrives, eat, and then pay for your meal before starting for home.

Once back you give your grandmother the stuff you bought and she thanks you and Dirk before giving you both the free pass to do as you want until dinner. This leads to you heading up to your room again and sitting silently together until you wander over to your animal skull collection at which point Dirk asks about it. You inform him that whenever you see a dead animal skull when exploring you collect it and bring it home to clean before adding it to your collection. It’s another hobby of yours most would consider strange but you enjoy it and Dirk doesn’t seem to have any issues with it. Besides any other bones you spot with the skulls go to Bec and that dog sure loves it when that happens. 

You sit and chat for a while until dinner. This time Dirk gets some of the fish you got at the market and he seems to greatly enjoy it along with some more oranges. After dinner you end upstairs again to wind down for the night and then go to bed, Dirk settling down in his corner once more.

Before you fall asleep you deem this a normal but good day and then pass out.


	4. Meeting the Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dirk has some mail that tells him about some visitors that he's both excited and worried for.

Time goes by and before you know it its been a month since you bonded with Jake. You’ve learned a lot about him and humans in general in that time and you’ve actually grown to kinda like living with them even if being in crowded spaces is still definitely not your thing at all. You haven’t had any more sleepwalking incidents with Jake nor have you seen that grey blob again so it goes to the back of your mind only to brought forward when you really have nothing else to think about in the dead of the night. Along with that you haven’t heard from your family either. You hadn’t expected like, weekly visits or anything like that, that’s not how Striders roll, but you still can’t help but worry about them and miss them even if you’d never admit it. They were your family and you loved them after all. Still it comes as a surprise when breakfast rolls around one day and you are told by Jake’s grandmother that there was mail for you. That had been the last thing you were expecting. Sure dragons knew how to read and most could write but it was difficult and rarely done so it was really weird. Though you guess everything about your family is really weird. Another really weird thing is when you ask to see it she brings out a rock with the simple message, ‘Visiting soon. Hope you’re ready.’ scratched in. It must’ve been Bro’s doing then. 

You don’t know what to think. On one hand you’d get to see your family again, well expect for Hal, for the first time in a month. But on the other you weren’t sure how Jake and the rest of your new… Family? Would react. But knowing Bro you had no choice either way. He was coming and all you could do about it was wait for his arrival.

Jake looks at the rock as well, craning his neck so he can properly see and read the message from where he sits. After he reads what it says his eyes light up with excitement. “Oh! Someone visiting you? Who might that be?” He turns to look at you and for a brief moment you think he must be mocking you. That there’s no way he can’t make the connection like you did. But then you look at his glowing smile and happy face and remember just who you’ve bonded with. Of course Jake didn’t make the right connection. “Well my Bro probably sent this but he’s unlikely to leave behind even though he’ll for sure have someone else guarding the cave.” Likely Roxy’s mom knowing him. “Oh of course! Can’t have anything getting stolen!” You don’t feel the need to correct him and say that he could care less about things get stolen really, it was more about Hal and the principle of his territory being invaded and therefore him being defeated that really bothered Bro. Well no there is the tingling urge in the back of your brain to spill the beans to Jake but you effectively smash it to bits and shove it so far back into your mind that you’ll never see it again. You can’t risk Hal’s safety like that even with Jake. You trust Jake now more than you ever have any other human, or dragon besides Dave or Roxy to be honest, but still. Telling him about Hal will forever be off limits. For Hal’s safety and for the safety of many others.

So instead you just nod to Jake and he chuckles. “Well I can’t wait to meet your family chap!” You shrug. “They aren’t that great.” Or that’s what you say you think at least. Inside you treasure your family like they are all that is important and special in this world and you look up to all of them more than you will ever admit. You would do anything to keep them happy and safe. Dave is your little brother, the thing that it is your job to protect from danger and help teach how to be a good and tough person that can protect himself someday. You do get a little over protecting and controlling of him but he always forgives you and for that you will always be grateful to him. Bro is your eldest brother who keeps the entire family safe and fed and otherwise cared for and you owe him everything. Even your life. Hal is your twin. Hal is annoying but he’s also someone who understands you better than anyone else, even Roxy. And you know behind his jealousy and anger at your freedom to be your own person that he looks up to you as if you were his older brother rather than his twin, molding himself to be like you even as he says he hates being so much like you. He is like a second younger brother to you, someone to teach and protect with your life.

Even the family that isn’t family by blood is really important to you. Roxy is your rock, allowing you to lean on her and rely on her for support when you need it and she’s always there to help you and keep you stable. Without her you don’t know what you would’ve done. You do know you probably would’ve done something stupid at the very least. Roxy’s mom was a lot like her only she had experience in things Roxy didn’t and taught you things that Bro didn’t or wouldn’t for whatever reason. While Bro taught you how to hunt and catch things to eat Roxy’s mother was the one who taught you how to cook it so you wouldn’t get sick from it and even taught you a few tricks to make it taste better. And then there was Rose. She was the family member you were the farthest from and the one you disliked in a serious way the most. But even so she was still important to you. She was a sounding board for ideas that Dave or Roxy would ok just because they were yours or that they wouldn’t even understand in the first place. She kept you from making stupid mistakes that would put you or your family in danger. And you knew deep down that if worse came to worse she would protect you and your family with her life just as you would her and her’s.

If something did go wrong at this upcoming visit you knew you would choose your old dragon family over your new human one in a heartbeat but at the same time you had just started to get used to things around here and you were settling in quite nicely. Things were calm here but Jake always brought in something new or different to keep things from blending together to the point where you couldn’t tell one day from the next like you knew would happen if you were ever left along to your own devices for more than a day or two. You had started to bond with everyone here even outside your new family and you enjoyed your life here more than you liked to admit. It would be painful to lose all this now even if you would still do it for your family’s sake in the blink of an eye.

You really hoped that everything would go well.

There’s no specified time or date of arrival on the rock so Jake’s family and you start preparations right away for their arrival and you seem to have thought smartly there as not even a day after you finish the last of the preparations you see two familiar shadows start to lower themselves down into the English-Harley homestead lawn.

Bro and Dave have arrived.

Here goes nothing and everything at the same time.

You head outside and as you do Jake notices the shadows and jumps to his feet with a slightly girly excited squeal and rushes after you. You cringe a little and hope your brothers didn’t hear that as you step out onto the grass. Your brothers land and there’s silence for a few moments as you stand there staring at each other. Dave is a bright red all over with the same color eyes and Bro looks a lot like you only with more yellow markings than you have. Bro is a hulking figure, a bit bigger than most other fire dragons, reaching to about ten to twelve feet tall when on all fours and about twenty five to thirty feet long. You are pretty sure he won’t fit inside the house even with the accommodations the place has for dragons. Dave is smaller than you and looks almost miniscule beside Bro at about four to five feet tall and eight to ten feet long. Even so it’s a wonder Jake isn’t terrified by the three of you. Or is it? You haven’t known Jake to fear anything at all in the entire month you’ve known him. He’s really brave and it’s actually a little cute if incredibly unsafe and foolish. 

Dave breaks the awkward silence with a glance to Jake and by saying, “This the guy you got paired with dude?” You nod and Dave smirks. “Hey. Names Dave.” Jake smiles and waves happily. “Hello chap! That means you must be Bro!” He turns to look at Bro who only nods in response though Jake is unfazed by his cold and blank expression as he analyzes Jake just like he does everyone. You guess that’s one trait you have in common with him. Or one out of many at least. “It’s so great to meet you both! Oh where are my manners. My name is Jake English!” Bro gives a slight smirk and a snort that makes you relax immensely because it means Jakes show of utter ignorance and blind carefree attitude has made Bro deem him to not be a threat. That’s good. It’s something at least. He doesn’t necessarily approve of him yet but he’s not worried about having to take you away from him at least. At least not for safety reasons.

Jake seems to sense that this is a good reaction, probably from the way you and Dave seem to relax, and so he grows even more cheery. Or maybe it’s the fact that he can see Jade and Bec racing towards you all from the town where she had taken the dog for a walk. Yeah that’s likely it. Bec nearly tackles Jake to the ground as they run up, taking the excitement from the two humans and eating it up as well as multiplying it to radiate off himself. Bro instantly pulls back up his guard in front of the new people, or well, person and dog, leading you and Dave to tense up a little again as well. You with the hope that he won’t dislike Jade or Bec and Dave with worry that if he does that things could violent if he doesn’t.

As Jade and Jake laugh at Bec’s happiness a whistle comes from behind you that you recognize to mean Jake’s grandma finished whatever she was doing and as joined you all outside. Bec bounds off Jake and over to her where she calms the dog down easily and Bec stands beside her obediently as she rests a hand on his back. “Hello there. You must be Dirk’s family. It’s nice to meet you. I’m these two rascals grandmother though you can just call me Ms. Harley. This here is Bec,” She pats the dog who gives a bark before continuing. “And my grandchildren over there are Jade and Jake.” “Gran I’ve already introduced myself!” Jake protests. “I wanted to introduce you two as well! Afterall Dirk is my bonded partner now! Shouldn’t I get to show off to his family just a smidge?” Ms. Harley chuckles. “Sorry, Jake. You can introduce us again if you’d like.” Jake crosses his arms and pouts. “There’s no point now.” He grumbles. He’s such a child sometimes. You think that if the rules weren’t based on age alone and not maturity that Jake might not have a dragon yet. Ms. Harley chuckles again. Sometimes you can’t help but think of her as an older, wiser, and more subdued Jade. 

Bro is keeping his eye on Ms. Harley, apparently more worried about her than Jade or even Jake. Or maybe it’s something else. Bro’s emotions have always been a mystery to you and Dave alike. Hal too though less so in some cases since he spends more time alone with him while you and Dave hunt and the Lalondes never have trouble determining what any of you Striders are feeling for some reason. Either way Bro is watching Ms. Harley closely.

Jade finally speaks up, turning to face your brothers. “I don’t know if there’s enough room in the house for all of us.” She tilts her head as if trying to calculate the exact dimensions of your brothers. Bro shrugs. “Probably not.” short and sweet as even if his voice is cold and blank. Dave picks it up for him. He talks enough for everyone in your family most of the time so it’s not too much of a surprise for you. “Yeah I don’t think all of us could fit in there without smashing the place to pieces. Boom one step in and the entire place crumbles down and turns to wood chips. Would make for some really good firewood but you can’t exactly sleep in firewood. I’ve tried. Turns out just because I’m a fire dragon doesn’t mean I can touch fire to my skin without getting burned.” You remember when that happened. Dave had just been a small toddler just barely learning how to use his powers and he had set some leaves on fire while Bro’s back was turned and you had gotten lost in your head again, you also being young enough to not fully understand that keep an eye on Dave meant not doing that and actually focusing on what he was doing. He’d gotten curious and attempted to lay down in his burning pile only to find that yeah, fire still hurt. You’d gotten told off bad for letting him do that and the both of you had increased intensity combat training for a week after Dave recovered from his minor burn.

A soft smile comes to your lips at the memory before you catch yourself and hide it again, forcing your face back to stoic. You do a quick scan to see if anyone noticed and find Jake smiling up at you as Dave continues rambling on and Bro staring at you. 

You can’t quite tell just how Bro feels about your slip and it worries you. If he thinks that these guys are making you soft he might take you away from them or worse. You aren’t especially worried if he just decides to take you, you’d miss Jake and his family yeah but that’d be the only damage because you know Jake wouldn’t take it to the ambassador or anything like that. He’s too soft for that. Now if Bro does something more though well… Then things could go south really fast. You sincerely hope that doesn’t happen.

Now that you think about it though…

Is living with Jake making you soft?

You’ve been showing your emotions more and more often slowly and slipping up more and more. It’s slow yeah but how long until you lose control over your emotions completely? A year? Two years? Then what? You… You don’t want to think about that. You need to keep your emotions in check. 

Dave has finally stopped rambling, presumably due to an interruption by Jade based on the fact that they’re now talking to each other happily, and Ms. Harley is saying that she needs to go back inside to work on some things leaving you, Jake, and Bro sitting there looking at each other silently.

Oh god.

You just realized you don’t know how long Bro is planning to stay.

Shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on this chapter! I've been busy recently and have been dealing with some writer's block but I'm trying my best to keep writing these chapters for you all to read!


	5. Camping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone enjoys a little camping trip as families bond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter chapter this time as school will be starting soon for me and so I'm getting busier and busier but I hope to continue writing regardless as much as I can. Thanks for the understanding!

Because Dirk’s elder brother is in no way fitting inside the house, your grandma decides that all of you will sleep outside with him in order to be courteous when he informs you all that he and Dave will be staying the night. This leads to you and Jade both excitedly squealing, “Camping!” At the same time and then dashing off to grab a bunch of stuff to set up outside for the night.

By the time tents are set up your gran has the fire going, having insisted on doing it the old-fashioned way despite Dirk’s attempt to help her. You can’t help but think maybe she’s trying to impress Dirk’s family for whatever reason but that’s preposterous. Why would your amazing grandmother feel the need to try and impress anyone? There’s no need for it which means that it wouldn’t make any sense for her to be doing so. By any means, she has the fire going by the time you have the two tents set up, one for you and your sister and one for your gran, and she’s talking casually with Dirk’s eldest brother. You can’t quite hear what they’re saying as they’re being a little quiet with their chatter but you can only assume it’s all good things by your grandma’s smile. Bro as you now knew Dirk’s oldest brother to be named, didn’t seem to be much of a talker, giving short and straight to the point responses to whatever your grandma was saying but she didn’t seem to mind so neither did you.

You turn your attention towards Dirk to find him looking at them as well with a much more wary expression than your happy grin. Seems he was a bit nervous about all this nonsense. You had no idea why but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that you now had the goal to go cheer him up and distract him from whatever was troubling him so.

You bound over to him and speak to him, looking up at him. Sometimes having to look up to see him so often strained your neck a bit but you never minded. It was worth it to chat with your bonded dragon and sometimes Dirk would notice your pain and lower his head for you after apologizing. You would never understand why he felt the need to apologize for his height, which he had no control over, but he did whenever he noticed your pained neck. Besides, you were starting to get used to it and therefore not get as sore as often so that was good. 

Anyway, your words are cheerful and happy as you speak to your newest companion. “Isn’t this exciting chap?” Dirk turns to you with a look of slight confusion on his face and you chuckle. “Look at it! Our families are getting along famously!” He turns back to the others and you look as well. The eldest family members are still talking and the younger two are chatting as well, Dave smiling and Jade practically shouting and gesturing wildly in the way she does when she gets excited and hyper. Everything is calm and warm as the two families get to know each other and have a good time. Dirk seems to recognize this and relaxes a little, nodding. “Yeah. I guess they are.” He looks back at you and you smile up at him. “Of course they are! I’m so glad that they are too! It’ll make getting to know you even easier!” He seems confused as to how exactly but that you don’t answer as you wrap your arms around him as much as you can. You can’t quite reach all the way to his back but you do get your arms wrapped around his sides and your head fits comfortably against his chest. Whatever question he had for you seems to disappear into thin air at your action and he stares at you for a couple of moments before gently lifting one claw to place on your back. It’s not much of a gesture but you know Dirk well enough to know by now that it’s something huge all the same for him. He’s not exactly a touchy-feely kind of guy you’ve noticed. Not that it matters to you. You still touch him all the time. This is the first time you’ve hugged him though. You’ve got to admit that even after all the times you’ve touched Dirk you still always expect his scales to be colder than they are. You guess it’s a feature of fire dragons to be warm to the touch. You like it a lot. Especially when you’re pressed against him with your whole body like you are right now. It’s nice.

You stay there for a while before pulling back again. Dirk’s claw hovers in the air for a moment afterward before slowly returning to the ground as he watches you. You grin up at him before turning back to your group, your grin shifting to a proud smile. Everything is going so smoothly and you can’t help but feel like at least part of it is because of you even if you haven’t exactly done too much. It’s a good feeling to have all the same.

Eventually, Dirk seems to settle enough to lay down and you sit down beside him, leaning against him a bit as you both watch the fire flicker quietly, just enjoying each other’s company. You don’t even notice that you fell asleep until you feel Dirk very gently using a claw to shake you awake. 

“Hmm… Huh? Chap? What’s up?” You yawn and look to Dirk tiredly and notice him watching the trees carefully. Dave is asleep next to the tent that you should've been sleeping in but Bro seems to be missing. You go to question this when you notice that Dirk’s face is focused and worried, concerned about something beyond your line of sight at least at the moment. This causes you to frown and try to wake yourself up at least a bit more. Dirk gets worried often and easily sure but his worries are more often than not valid. “Is something wrong chap?” He glances down at you briefly before looking back at the trees. “I smell a dragon over there. Not one I’ve ever smelt before either. It doesn’t seem to know how to use the wind to hide it’s scent either. It may be young if so but that’s doubtable considering how far from the mountain it would have to go.” Dirk quickly briefs you on the situation and you sit up a bit straighter. What would a baby dragon be doing all the way down here? How did it get here? Where was it’s family? Surely it had one right? What if it wasn’t a baby dragon? Then what was it here for? You had so many questions and were tempted to ask them into the darkness to see if the dragon would answer. You can tell Dirk is worried about this other dragon though so you bite your tongue to keep from doing so until you know what Dirk thinks is the best plan. 

“What do you suppose we do chum?” Dirk is silent for a while and you can practically hear the gears churning in his head. “We should… We should wake up Bro. Just in case it’s violent. Then we should see what it wants.” He seems unsure about waking up his brother. Almost as if he’s nervous about how his brother will react to being woken up. Maybe he’s cranky when he wakes up? That would make sense you suppose. If so maybe you two should see about doing this without him.

“Maybe we could see what it wants without asking him for any assistance. After all if this other dragon fellow attacks then surely your brother will hear it and wake up no?” Dirk seems to consider this for a moment before nodding. “I mean yeah.” You smile. “Then there we go chap!” Dirk nods again and stands up. You follow his lead and get your feet as well but Dirk hesitates. You comfortingly smile and place a hand on his side leading him to look to you. “Hey. It’s going to be ok chap. I promise.” He seems about to protest that you can’t promise that but then shuts his mouth again and nods. He looks back to the woods then back to you again and seems to come to a conclusion about something. The next thing you know he’s picking you up gently by the back of your shirt and gently placing you on his back the same way he did when you had been sleepwalking a month earlier. From there he silently turns back to the forest and starts heading towards where he must be smelling this other dragon. You have to lean down and wrap your arms around his neck, just barely able to make it all the way around it, in order to keep yourself from slipping off accidentally as he moves but all the same you can’t help but smile at the action and the care he put into said action.

This just further proves to you that even if Dirk doesn’t show his affection verbally he still cares about you.

You both head into the treeline and Dirk seems to tense a bit more so you comfortingly grip his neck just a bit tighter. You don’t know if he feels it or not but either way he doesn’t acknowledge it, instead keeping silent as you approach this other dragon. 

You reach the dragon and despite the dark, you can just barely make out that it is most likely a water dragon of some kind as it’s colored a dark blue. It’s about the right size for an adult water dragon too but something gives you the feeling this is a teen dragon at best much like Dave back at camp. As it notices you it seems to try and make itself both bigger and smaller simultaneously, it’s wings pulling in close to its body and tail tucking in as well even as it stands up straighter and puffs out its chest. It almost appears as though its conscious commands to its body are conflicting with its subconscious and instinctual reaction. It's actually a little funny once you think about it but you hold back your laughter. Dirk is about the same size as this dragon if just a bit bigger and so he only has to look down a little in order to speak to it.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Dirk’s voice sounds so calm and composed that it actually surprises you a little. You can’t see his face from where you sit on his back but you can tell from his voice alone that either he’s not worried anymore now that he’s seen the dragon or that he’s hiding his nervousness very very well. “I…” The dragon seems to evaluate its choices for a moment before speaking again. “I am Equius Zahhak. I was looking for Nepeta Leijon as she said she would meet me around here tonight.” You guess that must be another dragon. Probably a friend of his. Or at least that is your guess until Dirk debunks it for you. “Is that the human I smell on you?” The other dragon, Equius, nods. “You aren’t old enough to have been bonded yet.” You have no idea how Dirk knows this but oh well. You’ll try to remember to ask him later. “Yes, but she is a friend of mine all the same.” He seems to firmly believe that so you suppose it must be true even if you have no idea how it could be. You thought young dragons weren’t even allowed down from the mountains until they were older for any other reason but being taught how to hunt and you don’t know anyone who would go far enough into the woods to get into dragon hunting territory. Even you haven’t gone that far out. Dirk seems more suspicious than you but doesn’t say anything about it. Instead, he says something else, voice still as confident and clear as before. “Then find them and leave.” The other dragon nods deeply, a near bow, and speaks in a tone that radiates gratitude. “Of course.” He quickly turns and leaves for deeper into the forest and you smile as Dirk turns as well and heads back out of the forest and to camp.

Once he’s got you off his back again you both settle down by the fire again you speak. “Well, that went swimmingly don’t you think Dirk?” He seems to be too deep in thought to fully register what you said because all he does is nod absentmindedly. You tilt your head and let yourself frown a bit. “Is something wrong chap?” He pauses a moment and then speaks carefully. “That wasn’t the dragon I smelled and now the other one’s scent is gone.”

This catches you off guard. That hadn’t been the dragon you had been looking for? Then where was the one you had been looking for? What had it been doing here? Where was it now? What do you do about this? Do you tell the adults? Do you keep it to yourselves?

“Oh. Well… What now?” You turn to Dirk for guidance and help, knowing that if anyone knows what to do it's him. He always has a plan for everything. He should know what to do about this situation right? He doesn’t answer you for a while before finally speaking again. “We wait. See if it comes back at all. If it doesn’t then we forget about it. If it does we ask what it wants and go from there.” That seems like a reasonable plan so you nod. “Sounds good chap!” You smile again and Dirk nods, his own face staying a deep focused frown as he stares into the fire without really looking at it. You lean against him again as a comforting gesture and soon find yourself drifting off to sleep once more.


	6. Panic and Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A secret gets out that causes some issues but leads to some bonding as well

You don’t sleep much even as Jake passes out at your side. You’re too busy thinking about what just happened. That scent had disappeared as soon as you found Equius and you have no idea where it went or who was making it or why they were here. Could it have been the grey blob you saw that night when Jake was sleepwalking? It was a possibility but you don’t know what to think about it. If it was true that meant that dragon had come back twice. What did it want with Jake and his family? Who was it? What kind of dragon was grey? Why had you never heard of anything like it before? You had no idea what to think about any of this. You both wanted to tell Bro about all of this and didn’t at the same time. What would he think of you? What would he do when you told him? Take you away in order to protect you? But what about Jake? What about his family? You had to protect them, that was part of your job now as Jake’s bonded dragon. Besides, you had grown to like all of them. So what are you supposed to do?

You’re so lost in your thoughts that you don’t even realize the sun has started to come up and as such Bro is up and moving around. Now that you think about it you never stopped to check if he was really asleep last night. Not that you’d even be able to tell if you had stopped to check knowing Bro but still. What if he hadn’t been asleep? What if he was going to get mad at you for not waking him up instead of going after that strange dragon yourself? You kept spiraling deeper and deeper into your head until you heard Dave wake up as well and start talking to Bro. You decided to pretend to still be lost in your own head in order to listen in on what they were saying.

“Shouldn’t we get back to Hal?” “Roxanne is there.” “I know man but still. He’s been missing Dirk too anyway. Maybe we could convince him to come visit Hal? Would Ms. Harley allow that?” “She doesn’t have to.” “Bro come on he’s bonded to these guys now. We have to at least take into consideration how they’ll react if just for Dirk’s sake.” Bro snorts and you can almost feel Dave’s frown increase. He’s trying his best not to set Bro off and you applaud him for how well he’s doing so far but you can tell Bro is in a stubborn mood right now. Really when is he not to be honest but especially right now. “Come on Bro. Hal would love it to see Dirk again even if just for like, an hour or something.” If Dave is trying this hard to convince Bro to allow this than that means Hal must really actually miss you a shit ton. Wow. You mean, you always knew he’d get lonely without your company since you were the only one besides Bro who didn’t have any friends to go hang out with but still. It warms your heart and makes you feel guilty as fuck at the same time to hear all of this.

Dave must’ve given Bro his signature puppy eyes because Bro sighs and relents at least a bit. “Fine. We can ask if he can come back but we can’t tell them about Hal.” “I mean duh dude. But how do we ask without-” Dave is cut off by a human head peeking out of the tent nearest to Dave. 

Jade’s awake.

And she heard at least part of their conversation.

Shit.

“Whose Hal and why aren’t you supposed to tell us about him?” She asks with a yawn, rubbing her eyes.

Bro freezes up and you stop breathing for a moment. Shit. Fuck. You’re dead. You’re all dead. 

Jake is awakened by the stopping of your steady breathing and snuggles into you before yawning and opening his eyes. “Dirk? Is something wrong?” Everyone turns to you and you feel like you’re suffocating. It’s too much. You can’t handle this. You can’t take this pressure. Jake wakes up a bit more as your nervous energy radiates off you against your best wishes. “Dirk? Chap?” He looks at you worriedly and reaches a hand towards your head for a moment before stopping to hold it still in the air instead. Bro’s eyes burn into you and Dave is holding his breath just like you, panic evident on his face. Jade just seems confused but all attention is on you and it’s just too much to take.

You start to hyperventilate a bit and stand up, keeping your eyes focused on the ground, unable to look anyone in the eye. “Dirk?” Jake’s voice sounds even more nervous and worried about you but you can’t get any sounds out of your throat. You’re too choked up to get anything to come through. Even air is struggling to move through your lungs and throat. 

Just as you think you’ll never escape the panic and fear filling every inch of your body Ms. Harley comes out of her tent and stops to look at everything happening, causing everyone to turn to her. You take the opportunity before it’s too late and open your wings and take off into the sky and try to get as far away as you can. You hear Jake call out your name as you leave but you don’t stop. You can’t stop. You have to get out. You need to get out.

You finally land deep in the forest and curl your wings around yourself and pull your tail in close to your body. You try to calm yourself down, forcing your mind to think about what Roxy taught you to do when your stress and anxiety gets to be too much. All you can remember is deep breathes and you try your best to steady your breathing. You don’t know how long it takes but you finally start to calm down when you hear leaves shift behind you and you startle, breathing fire on instinct at the sound. Luckily only a small bit of it actually hits a plant and catches. A small hand darts out of the bush and pats down the leaves that caught and you instinctively hiss and raise your wings up to make yourself look bigger despite the hand being human. You can’t smell them well and you don’t recognize the scent from the town as well. You haven’t spent much time in the town but still. It sends fear and adrenaline coursing through you.

“Who's there?” You hiss at the person. However, before you can get a response you are distracting by someone else crashing through the trees from the direction you think you flew here from. You turn towards it and whoever put out your accidental fire flees into the trees. You turn back and open your mouth to call out to them when Jake comes crashing through the bushes. “Dirk! Oh god, chap I’m so glad to have found you!” He runs up to you and hugs you tightly. You startle and tense up at the contact but he just keeps hugging you. Slowly you relax into his touch and press the tip of your snout into his hair and a gentle clawed foot goes to his back. 

Somehow just holding him there feels relaxing and comforting. His warmth against you despite your body always being warm is calming and just matching your breathing to his helps immensely to calm the panic and fear that went through you because of the discovery of Hal and of the weird human you just encountered. In fact, having him there smiling and pressing against you makes you completely forget about everything besides this blissful gentle contact for a while. Your worries and fears disappear from your mind as everything narrows down to this moment here with Jake. With your snout pressed to his hair you can get a nice whiff of his hair. He must use some kind of pine scented shampoo. Either that or he just adventures so much that he just naturally smells like the open woods. No matter. Either way, it smells so calming and freeing. You can imagine just flying through the trees with him on your back without a care in the world. Normally you’d fear hurting him with your sharp claws as you press it to his back gently but like this instead, all you can think about it what it would feel like to touch his skin without his shirt and vest separating you from it. How much warmer would it be? Just how soft is his skin? Would it be tough like his palms and fingers are from exploring or firm like the muscles in his body make the skin of his arms and legs or soft yet slightly stubbly like the skin of his face? You don’t know and you don’t know why you now want to know so badly but you do. You sit there for who knows how long just holding him before finally he pulls away again.

“You got me mighty worried when you flew off like that chap!” You look down subconsciously “Yeah. Sorry man.” He smiles up at you. “It’s ok chap. Your brothers explained everything to me so I fully understand why you would feel the need to get out of there quickly!” He chuckles. “You just worried me quite a bit when you left. I thought you might get lost or attacked or something like that!” It both warms your heart and hurts it to hear that he didn’t at all worry about you just not coming back. He didn’t even think about you abandoning him. He’s so sweet and innocent to think that. Everything about him is so sweet and innocent really. “Yeah. Sorry.” He chuckles again and waves a hand in the air. “Again, don’t worry chap! Let’s just get home.” You nod and he starts to walk.

You follow after him for a moment before your mind goes back to your fantasy of before of him on your back as you fly through the sky. You open your mouth to mention it before shutting it again. He already had trouble staying on you when you’re just walking how will he stay on you when you’re flying? Jake seems to notice your hesitation and turns to look at you. “Is something on your mind chap?” You look away from him in embarrassment. “I uh… I was just thinking about flying with you on my back but that would be impossible. You’d fall off.” He raises a hand up and taps his chin thoughtfully. “Hmm… well, I don’t know about that chap. I might be able to try to hold on.” You stop in order to think about this more and he turns to face you, smiling with a bit of excitement. “I think it would be a lot of fun to ride you through the sky!” You don’t know how you feel about this. On one hand, you want to live that feeling you felt as you thought about that fantasy before but on the other if he fell…

You look up at him and at his eyes and see the excitement in them and you know you have to. You can’t let him down now that you’ve put the idea in his head. “Let’s do it.” You try to sound as confident as possible and Jake must buy it because he jumps up and down. “Yes! Let’s do this chap!” You can’t help but smile softly at his excitement. 

You lean down and gently take his shirt in your jaws and lift him onto your back like you’ve done a decent number of times at this point. You wait until he’s definitely got a solid grip around your neck as much as he can before you go for a slow takeoff. You pretend as if this is your first time flying all over again and you try to simulate the carefulness you had used during that moment as you take off as slowly as you can. You can practically feel the beating of Jake’s heart as he presses his chest to your neck but you try to ignore it before it stresses you out too much. You get just above the tree line before your stress stops you from going any higher for fear of Jake falling and dying. From this height, if he were to fall he would still have a chance of dying and he’d almost certainly break at least a couple bones but it’s still better than almost certain death. Jake seems much more focused on the excitement of being in the air this high for the first time in his life as he laughs and practically squeals with excitement and joy. It helps you keep calm knowing that he’s not worried and that he’s happy.

You fly over the trees and he points out things as you go that you’ve never noticed before and that helps too. Before you know it you are over top the campsite by the house and so you gently lower yourself down and from there Jake slides off of you excitedly. He seems oblivious to the way Bro and Dave watch you and how you shrink a bit under the gazes. His happiness helps you keep from flying away again and he rushes over to his family to enthuse about flying over the forest on your back. In the meantime, you head over to your own family to talk to them about the whole situation with Hal. Bro is silent but Dave informs you that they’ve already talked to Jake and his family about everything and answered their questions. They’ve apparently also gotten their explicit and enthusiastic consent to hiding everything as well. The fact that surprises you the most is the enthusiastic part. Bro is still silent when you question it and Dave just shrugs. You look over to where Jake is talking to his family and they are getting all excited and hyper along with him and it clicks.

They understand you.

They understand your family and your fears over this.

They know how it must feel and they want to help.

That… well it hits you hard to say the least. Knowing that you have people who aren’t related to you and whom you didn’t spend your entire life growing up with who understand you and how you feel and want to help you is a big deal to you. Your heart warms and almost feels like it’s growing. It almost feels painful in your chest as you watch Jake and have this realization go through your head. You feel tears prick at your eyes at that’s where you draw the line at least in front of Bro. You look away from them and nod silently, once again too choked up to speak but now for a very different reason. Bro seems to understand and just nods towards Jake and his family before raising his wings and taking off. Dave stays for a moment longer before saying goodbye and taking off after Bro before he can get too far ahead. You watch them go for a moment before turning back to what you now know for absolute certain is your new family and walking over to them. You may not have had to lose your old family to gain your new one but now you have the new one and you never have to worry about losing them. You walk to Jake’s side and he glances at you for a moment, smiling wide, before going back to his conversation and you don’t think you’ve ever felt so at home and loved in your life and it’s amazing. You never want it to stop and it makes you smile thinking that it never will stop. Because they love you and that will never change. And that’s all you need.


	7. Time Flies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some time passes and a new adventure is opened up

Honestly, you should’ve warned Dirk about this. You should’ve warned him that when the holiday season comes around your family goes all out but it completely slipped your mind. Not that seeing his wide eyes as he comes downstairs after your grandmother, Jade, and you have all gotten up early to decorate your home is a bad thing. You can’t help but chuckle at the sight really. You’d even call it kind of cute seeing his amazement at how much is different.

To start there is a huge pine tree in the living room already decorated and there are various fall and winter decorations covering almost every other surface of the house. Most of the decorations were Christmas related but some were Thanksgiving and Halloween related too. Even Bec’s normal chew toy has been swapped out for a black cat toy instead and his bed has been changed to a red and green one rather than a purely green one. Dirk seems utterly shocked and amazed as he pauses for a second on the stairs before having to stumble a bit to get the rest of the way down because stopping on the stairs on all fours is hard. He even seems too shocked to be embarrassed by his mistake like he certainly would be at any other time. Even after having him here for four months sometimes he can be a little uptight and nervous around you and your family.

“Hey, chap!” You wave to him with the last turkey decoration in your other hand. “Uh… Hey Jake.” You chuckle and put down the decoration to go over to him. Frankly, you’re glad he slept in later than you for once today if it means you get to see him all shocked at everything around him like this. Maybe you should see if your grandma would be up for rearranging the furniture one day just to surprise him. You doubt she’d be up for it due to the fact that you all would very easily forget things had been rearranged and absentmindedly bump into things and stuff like that but all the same you never know with your grandmother. She can be quite the spontaneous lady when she wants to be.

Once you’re over in front of Dirk where he still stands at the foot of the stairs you can’t help but chuckle again at the look of amazement he gives you as he finally tears his eyes away from everything else. “How? When? Why?” He seems so surprised and out of it that you can’t help but laugh a little at him, bringing a hand up to hide your smile behind it and muffle the sound. He gets a bit shy and embarrassed this time so you quickly distract him with an explanation. “We always decorate this much for the holidays! It’s fun and it’s much easier and simpler to do all the decorating in one go!” He takes this into consideration as he takes another look around and nods slowly in agreement. You smile and rush off to finish up as he gets himself reacquainted with the newly decorated space.

Before long Thanksgiving rolls around and your grandmother has food prepared out the wazoo for the entire day much less Thanksgiving dinner. You spend most of the holiday shoving your faces full of food whenever you can take it and watching Thanksgiving specials on TV and chatting with your family, Dirk included. During dinner your gran has everyone say what they are thankful for and she starts by saying she’s thankful for her grandchildren just like she does every year. It makes you blush a bit this time because of Dirk being there but he just smirks and chuckles at it. Jade goes next by saying she’s thankful for Bec who barks by her side in reply. Then it’s your turn and you say that you’re thankful for your friends and family, turning to Dirk as you do so. You can tell he’s a bit embarrassed by your gaze and words and a mix of that and him not expecting to be included in your family ritual means that the rest of you have to stare and smile at him a bit before he catches on and chimes in shyly and quietly that he’s happy to have bonded with you. You blush quite a bit at this and have to look away from him. You can hear Jade snicker into her hand and you know your gran is grinning at you from where she sits so you quickly try to distract everyone by announcing its time to dig in and starting to eat. By the end of the night, you end up passed out on the couch with Dirk’s wing over you and his head resting next to yours on the arm of the couch. 

Next is Halloween and this you prepare for all month, though you really have technically been preparing for it all year since you decided what you wanted to dress up as this year last year. A few days before you all carve pumpkins together, something you discover confuses Dirk deeply since you all insist on carving them yourself using force and knives while he can effortlessly cut open and carve a pumpkin with one of his claws. If anything he has to be careful not to just stab right through the pumpkin. Jade’s pumpkin ends up disappearing the night before Halloween but she doesn’t seem to notice so you leave it be. During your carving fest, you manage to find out from Dirk that he, because of who he is as a dragon and also a Strider, doesn’t have any plans for dressing up for Halloween. You and your sister quickly rectify that however using her creativity and knack for making things and your idea on how to incorporate him into your costume. The time comes and Dirk is at first apprehensive when you finally reveal your and his costume to him. You are covered head to toe in blue body paint complete with darker stripes and are wearing only a loincloth. You are completely and totally a Na’vi from Avatar. And him? He’s one of their flying mounts, a banshee. He doesn’t even have to change much considering how close the banshee already look to dragons. He refuses at first but eventually gives in and even those who don’t know Avatar are amazed to find a dragon being incorporated into a costume and as much as Dirk doesn’t really like all the attention you can also tell it’s helping to boost his ego just a bit which he definitely deserves. 

Finally, Christmas comes around and as such snow covers the ground. This leads to a snowball fight between you and Jade that gets resolved, or rather shifted, into one where the two of you team up against Dirk when he throws an absolutely massive snowball at the two of you, having made it with a claw and thrown it with his tail. It’s just the kind of thing you would expect from him and by the way he smiles when you and your sister team up against him your reactions are just what he was expecting from you. Eventually, the snowball fight does die down however in exchange for a contest on who can make the most snowmen before it’s time for presents. Unsurprisingly Dirk ends up winning since he can make all three snowballs at once by using his wings, claws, and tail all at the same time but it is still close enough that it’s fun. Soon though you all get called in for dinner and presents. Everyone gets quite a few gifts but there are a few big ones of note. Your gran gets some metal and things of the sort from Dirk that she seems especially happy about and Jade seems to really like the seeds you got her for when the snow thaws out again. Bec gets some new bones and chew toys from Jade and gran that he falls in love with too. You end up getting some new mass-produced movie posters and things of that sort mostly until you get to Dirk’s gift. From him, you get a metal statuette type thing that he clearly folded and welded and the like himself. The statue is about seven inches tall and is of a Na’vi. Specificity of one that looks like you. It’s an amazingly personalized gift that almost makes you feel guilty about just getting him some more metal to help feed the interest he seems to have formed with making things out of the stuff recently even if he seems content if not happy with the present.

Even once the holidays are over time continues to fly and before you know it an entire year has passed since you first bonded with Dirk. It feels amazing to think back on all the good times you’ve had with him now and with both Jade and Dave inching closer to their own bonding days you can’t help but reflect on all that’s changed and improved since you met Dirk. You’ve been able to go further on adventures without worry and you’ve been safer with his guidance, presence, and help too. In return, you’ve been helping him loosen up and relax a bit and you think you’ve both been making decent progress even if he still is pretty uptight and you’re still pretty wild and careless. And even beyond that the both of you are just happy knowing and hanging out with each other. 

You haven’t seen much of Dirk’s family since the camping trip but sometimes Dave will visit Dirk, usually without warning or at least with very minimal warning. Bro you’ve only seen twice since that first time a month into you knowing Dirk but both parties seem fine with that so you don’t question it. You’ve gotten to know Roxy through interactions with Jane as well as her coming to visit Dirk pretty often and have even learned that she’s not technically blood-related to Dirk but that they still consider each other family. You’ve even met Rose once before when she came with Dave once so they both could visit each other’s family and all have one big family get together. One person you know Dirk desperately misses though is Hal. 

Because of him being bonded with you Dirk hasn’t seen Hal in a year and you can tell he misses him and gets worried over him even as Dave insists that Hal is fine. It makes you feel guilty knowing that his bond with you is what’s holding him back even as Dirk says it’s fine and not your fault and that he doesn’t miss Hal. You can tell that’s bullshit. You can tell he misses him. He misses him a lot. You can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to not see a family member for that long. If you didn’t get to see Jade for a year you don’t know what you would do. You sure would miss her a lot that’s for sure.

This is essentially the train of thought that leads you to decide to let Dirk go for a weekend to visit Hal and catch up with him.

Too bad Dirk doesn’t accept it.

At first, you have no clue why he doesn’t take it and run with it but after a bit of stubborn and consistent asking, you manage to piece together from his non-answers that it’s because of you in some way.

This leads you to ask your gran for advice and her smiling knowingly and telling you to go with him to the mountains. Obviously, you don’t know what to say to that. No human has ever done that before ever. It’s technically against the rules of the human-dragon treaty even if not explicitly so. How were you supposed to go with him to see Hal if Hal can’t leave the mountains and you can’t enter the mountains? Your grandma then explains it to you and you hurry off to find Dirk.

“Dirk! Chap! I have absolutely wonderful news!” Dirk tilts his head at you, looking up from the metal he was working with. He did that a lot when he had alone time. “Yeah? What’s up?” “We’re going to go see Hal!” He pauses to stare at you for a long time after the words leave your mouth and you just wait. Eventually, he puts words to his thoughts. “We? How are you supposed to come with? You aren’t even supposed to know Hal exists. Hell, I don’t even know if he knows you know he exists.” You smile wider before answering his question. “I’m going to ride on your back up to the mountains but, wait for it, gran made a blanket for you that’s got a pattern and color to look just like your scales to put over me to hide me and she says that she made sure it wouldn’t have a human scent either meaning they all won’t be able to see or smell me!” Dirk just seems more confused at your sloppy explanation. “A scent rebelling blanket? How does that work?” You shrug. “She tried explaining it to me but it was a lot of sciency stuff I didn’t understand mostly.” He seems to make a mental note or something, his head tilting down just a bit, before speaking again. “And you’re supposed to both hold onto my neck and keep this blanket on you all at the same time?” You chuckle and start bouncing a bit. “Actually it’s supposed to be one of those weighted blankets so that as long as you don’t go too fast it should stay on top of me on its own!” He looks down as he takes this into consideration and calculates a few things, his face taking on a look of complete focus as he does so. Finally, he seems to have accepted that this is, in fact, possible and looks back up again, this time with a small smile on his face.

“Let’s do this.”


	8. Visting Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dirk takes Jake to where he grew up

It takes a couple of days for Ms. Harley to get everything ready but before you know it it’s time for you to take Jake to meet Hal and make him the first human to ever go into the dragon’s mountains. 

You don’t think you’ve ever been more nervous about something in your life.

Scared yes, you did literally flee into the woods that one time when your brothers were over, but never just plain nervous.

But Jake is so excited. He’s been bouncing almost from the moment you said you would do this and it’s only gotten more intense now that the day has come. He’s practically bouncing off the damn walls. His eyes are sparkling so much that they look more like a lake full of seaweed or algae or something rather than the forest they usually look like. His grin is the biggest you’ve seen it since his birthday when you gave him that statue of a banshee to go with the statue of the Na’vi you made him for Christmas. Really this smile might be even bigger. He’s so fucking excited to both go on this adventure that no other human has before but also to meet your brother and you can’t help but catch just a little of his excitement too. You can’t help it, all his emotions are infectious and he’s just so damn joyful.

Before long you’re helping Jake onto your back and with some help from Ms. Harley the two of you are getting the blanket she invented situated on your back just right and then everything is ready and all that’s left is to get going. You thank Ms. Harley but she just brushes it off and waves goodbye to you two as Jake yells out a muffled goodbye to her from under the blanket and you take off. 

It helps your nerves to be up in the sky. Up here if you do get attacked for whatever reason you don’t have to take as many precautions with your fire breath and you’re much faster in the sky than you are on the ground. Most if not all dragons are after all. Sure you’re fast on the ground, faster than most humans at least, but in the sky you can go as fast as a bullet if you want to. Of course you can’t with Jake on your back but the ability to do so is comforting nonetheless. Even the relative silence of the clouds is soothing. Sure you can hear the wind moving past and a few birds chirping here and there but it’s much quieter than down on the ground. Even the Harley-English family home can get a bit loud sometimes what with Jade and Bec playing around, Ms. Harley making things, and Jake getting ready for his next adventure and or watching and getting really excited over his latest, or not so latest, movie. You enjoy watching Ms. Harley and learning from her but sometimes even she gets to be a bit much for you. They all do give you time to yourself but that doesn’t mean they can keep everything quiet and you don’t expect them to make themselves miserable and bored for you anyway so any shred of quiet peace you can get is greatly appreciated even if it is in the middle of an adventure that’s making your stomach do flips. Jake’s arms are tight around your neck, even tighter than the few other times you’ve taken him flying since that one day, due to him not being able to see as well as just the fact that you’re up higher than you’ve ever taken him before. If he were to fall right now he’s very likely die. But you’re trying very hard not to think about that. Or the fact that if you get caught you’re both dead. No. What you’re trying to focus on is seeing Hal.

Imagine Hal’s face when he sees that you’ve come home just to visit him and not only that but you’ve brought a human with you, something he thought he’d never get to see. He’s always been a curious guy and knowing that there’s so many things out there that he’ll never get to see and experience and examine and understand ticks him off. It ticks him off a lot. So knowing that you’re helping him get to see what he never thought he’d see helps justify to you why you’re bringing Jake along in the first place even if you know deep down that’s not the only reason you wanted to bring Jake along if you were going to see Hal.

As you fly over the forest you manage to catch a glimpse through some of the trees of that same grey blob from a year ago when Jake sleepwalked. He’s sleepwalked since then but you’ve either not woken up, your sleeping habits are slowly getting a bit better since the Harley-English’s always seem to tire you out before the day is done, not followed him and instead went back to sleep, woken him up, or just followed him to no real benefit. You haven’t had any sight or smell of the blob since the night your brothers were over nor have you had any of the human you saw the next day. Almost as if the blob had learned its lesson and stopped coming around or wasn’t being let around you guys anymore. You were a decent distance from home now but a good distance from the mountains too so you have no idea what its doing out here. You almost want to stop and fly down there to get some answers but you can’t. You can’t derail this now you’ve come so far and who knows if you’ll ever have the guts to try it again. You can’t risk disappointing Jake by going after that probably a dragon of some kind maybe blob right now.

You quickly try to forget about the blob in fact and focus once more on getting to the mountains.

Luckily you get there pretty quickly and without any trouble but here’s where things get difficult. 

There are dragons everywhere now.

And if any of them get even the faintest idea that something’s not right about you?

You and Jake are dead.

You land nearby to your home cave, or at least as nearby as possible. See the cave Bro picked out to house your family? It’s tucked away just perfectly at the back of a valley in the mountain its in which leads to it being too small to land in. Basically the mountain has this little area on the side of it were it molded somehow to have almost a cut in it where the ground kind of smooths out in between two tall walls of rock leading to wall in the back with a cave. The cave you lived in for most of your life. Bro knew what he was doing when he found this spot too. It’s near of some the other platus where the other dragons land and hang out before heading off to their caves right there by that landing spot but it’s still tucked away enough that if you’re going there you have to have been looking for it. This all means you have to land in a more populated zone and that Bro and Dave, if he’s there right now, will be able to see you when you go in and as you approach. Hal is almost always in a much deeper part of the cave well away from the entrance but Bro mostly hangs out right there in the front.

God, you didn’t even think about how Bro is going to react to this bullshit. 

This could go one of two ways. 

He’s proud of your balls or he thinks you’re a total idiot who's trying to get himself and his bonded partner killed and probably deserves to be killed because of it.

Great.

Well, it’s too late to turn back now.

You start to head in the direction of your tucked away home immediately after landing and you really hope you just look eager to see your family again and not suspicious at all. You still look around the age to be newly bonded if not slightly older and they usually come home just a little bit more often than the others but still. Coming back to the mountains like this is rare and you know they can smell that you’ve been spending time with the humans meaning you’ve definitely been bonded. You just have to hope that you don’t look too out of place and that Ms. Harley’s blanket works at least enough to tone down Jake’s scent enough that it just seems like the scent of human you’ve spent time with rather than one on your back right that very instant. 

You get a few glances and weird looks but no one stops you or questions you so you must be natural looking enough and still good enough at hiding your emotions to hide your all-consuming nervousness that makes you want to run and hide for all eternity before you get ripped to shreds by angry dragons and also maybe doom the treaty humans and dragons share by making dragons stop trusting humans and maybe even each other a bit more than they already do therefore dooming so many other people at the same time.

But enough of that thought process. Can’t have yourself chickening out now. You’re in. You’re past all the others and now all that stands in your way is your brother.

Oh boy.

The first thing you notice upon entering the cave is that everything is exactly how it was when you left. In fact you think that half-eaten dead cow carcass over there is the exact same half-eaten dead cow carcass that was here when you left over a year ago. God were you really the only one in your family to ever clean? Scratch that you already knew you were the only one in your family to clean but you had thought maybe just maybe Roxanne might do a few things like throw out over a year old food but you guess not. Everything else is just the same too. Same half lit half not crappy torches that no one ever bothered to keep on as none of you really cared too much about light in the first place plus most of you were lazy as fuck, same junk and other useless human things strewn about thanks to your eldest brother’s antics back when he was alone and younger, and same old brother standing disapprovingly in front of you oh wait no that’s new. Or newish at least. Ok not that new at all but whatever.

“What are you doing here?” He says in a low, almost growling, tone. An all too familiar tone really. One of the things you didn’t miss about living with the rest of your biological family.

Before you can respond however, Jake decides that hearing Bro’s voice means it’s safe to come out despite the fact that you haven’t told him he’s good to go yet and therefore for all he knows you’re still surrounded by other random dragons. He pokes up from where he was laying flat against your back and neck and the blanket slides because of it as Bro’s eyes dart right to the movement and his wings open and tail raise a bit in a subconscious aggressive show. Jake manages to tug the blanket down more until his head and front can be seen and he smiles as he sees that, thankfully, you are in fact in your home cave. Bro relaxes a bit from his aggressive stance but if anything he seems more tense and pissed though now its out of worry over what the fuck you were thinking and the possibilities of what could happen instead of worry over defending himself and his family from whatever was on your back.

Jake however, stays blissfully unaware of this hostility from Bro. “Hello chap! It's good to see you again! Dirk here wanted to come see Hal again and I can’t say no to a little adventure so I came along for the ride!” You cringe out how much that makes it your fault even if most if not all of what Jake just said is technically true. Bro’s anger becomes redirected at you once more when he discovers this was not you just falling for your bonded partner’s charm, though surely that would’ve gotten you in trouble too, and instead was you asking him to come along with you into dragon territory and into his cave much less. “Oh really?” You can’t help but shrink up just a bit by the anger you can hear dripping from his voice that Jake doesn’t seem to pick up on. Your tail curls closer to your body and your wings come up closer to your head which withdraws a bit and yet Jake still seems completely oblivious. “Yep! Mind telling us where Hal might be?” Jake asks with his face and voice so chipper that you swear it could cut wood. “Just where he always is. Dirk should know the way.” The way he says it makes it very clear to you and you alone that the only reason you aren’t getting your ass beat right now is because of Jake. You don’t know why he’s not telling you to strife just because Jake’s around but you’re relieved to be off the hook, for now at least, anyway. You know you’ll still pay for this later but for now you’re free to go show Jake to Hal and vice versa, catch up with Hal, and then get the fuck out of here without getting caught. 

Easier said than done on that last part but you’ll save that for when the time comes.

For now, you’ve got a twin brother to see.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake finally meets Hal

You can’t believe you’re here! You’re here in a dragon’s home in the mountains and you’re about to meet Hal, the one dragon most dragons don’t even know exists. You’re so excited! And to make matters even better this place looks like some sort of dungeon or lair or temple of some kind and it's making you feel like some kind of action adventure movie hero. You can practically hear the music in your ears from some of your favorite Lara Croft movies. Which is all of them. All of this is just so cool and it's such an adventure! You can barely keep from just running ahead of Dirk on your own! It certainly doesn’t help that he’s being so slow with showing you the way to Hal but you can tell that it’s because he’s nervous about all of this just like he’s been this entire time, you don’t get why seeing as this was mostly something that he wanted and that was his idea but whatever, and you can get that so you’re trying not to rush him. 

Finally the time comes and Dirk leads you into Hal’s main hang out spot. His shared ‘bedroom’ with Dirk. It's more bare than the other rooms and from the fact that it’s the only room Dirk takes time to glance around it it’s likely the only one to have changed in the year he’s been gone too. There’s a few trinkets here and there but the main feature of the room seems to be one wall completely covered in scratch marks forming designs you don’t recognize and words you can’t quite make out. Dirk seems to recognize that part of the room at least but before you can ask him what they are you get distracted by a voice that makes you turn to a corner nearby the designs you had missed before when the designs had stolen your attention. “Dirk? What are you doing here? And who is he and what is he doing here?” The dragon you find speaking, who sounds a lot like Dirk if slightly more expressive with his voice, is a light almost silvery grey with red streaks all over his body. Your eyes light up as you recognize who this undoubtedly is.

“Hello chap! My name is Jake! Jake English to be precise! I’m your brother here’s bonded partner! You must be his brother Hal! It’s so good to get to meet you!” Hal seems taken aback by your excited and cheery voice and he withdraws a bit, curling away from you. Dirk almost seems to give an apologetic look to him when Hal looks at him before speaking. “I kinda thought you might like to see a human since you can’t exactly leave here you know?” Hal stares at him for a long time and you can’t read his expression though Dirk you can tell is filled to the brim with nervousness. “That’s really dangerous bro. What if you get caught?” Dirk just shrugs as an answer to Hal’s inquiry and the lighter colored dragon just sighs and shakes his head, seeming to adapt an almost playfully mischievous attitude very quickly and easily. It’s almost something you’d expect to see from John though his next words are harsh even for John’s oblivious shenanigans. “Wow man. What were you doing this on purpose hoping you’d get caught so you could finally be done? Was that why you did something so risky just for little old me? With the hope that it would fail and you’d die?” Instinctively you look to Dirk, worried about his reaction to such a sharp and strong jab but he almost seems... Relieved?

Dirk rolls his eyes at his twin though his posture relaxes just enough to be noticeable. “Come on Hal. I didn’t just do this for you. You’re too insufferable for that and I didn’t want to inflate your ego too much. Your head might explode if I do that.” It surprises you just how comfortable they are with these sharp jabs at each other but if anything Dirk’s return of Hal’s aggression makes Hal smirk more than he had before and he moves to start circling you too almost like a shark. 

“Really? You sure you aren’t mixing yourself up with me again Dirk?” “Pretty sure. Jake here really wanted to meet you and he’s super into adventure and I figured visiting the mountains is about as adventurous as it gets for a human so here we are.” Dirk isn’t wrong by any stretch and Hal actually laughs a bit at his words before stopping in front of Dirk again. They watch each other, Hal smirking and Dirk’s face stone cold neutral, for a long while before suddenly they’ve got their necks intertwined just slightly in that way you’ve learned is basically how dragons give each other hugs. You are thoroughly confused by what just happened but you guess that if they’re happy there’s nothing to worry about so you smile and continue watching for a bit longer, not wanting to ruin the moment for them.

“It’s good to see you, man.” Hal says and you swear you see Dirk smile before his head shifts and you can no longer see his face well enough to tell if you were right. Regardless his voice does give away a bit of his fondness for Hal when he speaks. “Yeah. It’s good to see you too dude.”

They stay like that for a few moments before pulling away again and easily adapting what you have started calling ‘Strider default’. Basically both their faces fall to blank and neutral, clear of all emotion whatsoever, and they pretend that neither of them have any feelings to speak of much less would ever do something ‘weak’ or that requires them showing affection for each other. Hal’s Strider default doesn’t last long though as he turns his attention back to you again ad he smirks once more. You smile back at him but don’t say anything yet as he looks you over. Dirk’s Strider default is more solid and stays put but you are quite proud to say that you’ve got at least his subtle clues figured out enough from the year that he’s lived with you to tell that’s he’s a little nervous about Hal’s curiosity over you. You can’t blame him too much. Hal’s gaze does feel just a bit invasive and uncomfortable but you try not to show it and don’t mention it. You want to get along with Hal not anger at him just because he’s curious about you! Dirk warned you that Hal was a curious guy after all especially about living things and how they worked both physically and psychologically so it wasn’t unexpected really and you can understand wanting to get as much information on something you’ve only seen once and might never see again in your life when you can. You do hope to be able to visit Hal as well as the rest of Dirk’s family and his home more than just once though.

“So you’re the guy Dave tells me Dirk is all over.” Dirk’s eyes widen and then he glares at Hal in a less than playful way but Hal either doesn’t see it or ignores it. You get the distinct feeling it’s the latter. You don’t understand Dirk’s anger anyway. “Well yeah! I am his bonded partner!” Hal chuckles. “Yeah? Well Dave told me once that you’re into almost every movie ever.” You nod enthusiastically. “There’s just so many good movies out there! If I had to choose a favourite it’d be Avatar though! Oh or maybe one Indiana Jones movies. Or one of the Lara Croft ones. It’s just so hard to choose!” Hal laughs again and looks to Dirk. “Good for you man. You picked the dorkiest idiot on the planet.” Dirk gives a low growl to go along with his glare this time but you still don’t get it. Dirk didn’t choose you. He got assigned to you by the ambassador. What is Hal talking about and why is Dirk angry about it? You can’t help but tilt your head in confusion and frown just a slight bit as you try to puzzle out what Hal means.

However, while you’re thinking Hal turns back to you and looks you over. “I mean just look at you. Glasses, buck teeth, cargo shorts that are just a bit shorter than they really should be, pistol holsters with no guns in them-” He goes to continue but you can’t help but cut him off. “Usually I have my two pistols in there when I go adventuring but I didn’t want to risk them going off accidentally while we were flying here! That would just be disastrous and totally ruin the adventure!” Hal laughs pretty at that actually and you still don’t get why or what he’s even talking about and it’s beginning to frustrate you just a bit. 

Dirk doesn’t seem like much of a fan either as he quickly tries to distract from it after another, a slight bit louder, growl at Hal by walking over to the designs carved into the wall. “How much progress have you made dude?” This gives you something new to be curious about and almost instantly forget all about what Hal was talking about before in favor of hurrying over to Dirk’s side to get a better look at things as well. The closer look does not help you understand any of it at all. Hal goes over too, choosing to stand next to Dirk, his falling to a much more serious expression. “Decently I guess. Progress is a bit slower without you here and I’m still a long way from knowing how to get it to work much less how we are going to build it but I’ve figured out a few things.” Dirk nods as he looks over the thing and you can’t hold back your curiosity any longer.

“What are you two chaps talking about?” Hal turns to you and Dirk gives you a glance before sharing a look at Hal and then going back to looking at the designs as Hal begins to explain to you what you’re looking at. “Dirk and I have been trying to figure out a way for me to be able to leave the cave and explore without becoming completely exhausted and killed for a long ass time and these are the crappy ass blueprints we have for the thing so far.” “Oh! Well, that sure is interesting!” Now that you know what you’re looking at you can see bits and pieces of what’s going on but you’re still no science or tech guy like these two or your sister and grandmother. 

Speaking of your grandmother Dirk seems to have taken in any changes Hal’s made and turns his head to look at him. “Well, I know someone who can help us.” Hal looks at him with confusion but you understand what he’s getting at and speak before he can. “My grandmother! She would be delighted to help!” Hal just seems even more confused so Dirk explains to him about how your grandma knows of his existence and was even the one to help you get smuggled all the way here into the mountains using her trinkets. When he’s done Hal’s eyes are wide and sparkling with excitement even as he struggles to keep the rest of his face from showing it. “Holy shit. Things will go a lot faster with someone like her helping out and that also solves the issue of making something like this without thumbs.” Hal and Dirk start up chatting science and technology stuff but you end up tuning them out, not understanding most of what they’re saying anymore and therefore becoming easily distracted. 

You look over the design some more before it hits you that your gran can’t help but if she can’t see the design so far and as much as you got here just fine your gran isn’t as young as she once was. She can’t come out here to see it and you certainly aren’t going to remember this design enough to tell her anything nor do you think you would have the ability to copy anything down if you even did have something to write and draw on which you don’t. You turn to look at the two dragons again and speak. “Um... Chaps?” They turn to you and Dirk speaks up first. “Yeah Jake?” “How are we going to show this to gran? We can’t very well fly her up here nor can we take this to her. She’s going to need to see the design in order to help you with it yes?” The brothers smirk at each other and you furrow your eyebrows and tilt your head in confusion. “Chaps?” Dirk is the one to speak to you again. “Don’t worry about it Jake. We’ve got this covered.” 

Before you can question further he turns to the design and says together with Hal, “Count of three. One, two, three.” In perfect unison Dirk breathes fire on the rock surface, heating it up and making it easier to cut, as Hal uses his wings to direct wind towards just the middle part of the rock face to cool down the design itself but leave a circle of rock face around it warm. From there Hal smooths out some of the edges with his more controllable heat breath before Dirk uses a claw to cut the edges out. That must’ve hurt at least a bit but what probably hurts more is when Dirk and Hal then slam their claws into the wall around the edges until there’s a decent sized indent there leading to the design sticking out from the wall. You watch in awe as Hal once again uses his heat breath, this time to warm the rock under the design so that about an inch of rock is left cool while the rest is heated. Dirk, once again in a manner that must be painful, slices through the rock, sometimes having to pull away to let Hal heat deeper and deeper into the rock until the remaining hold on the design breaks and the rock falls forward onto the floor, making you jump back in surprise a bit. This leaves a less deep but still there engraving of the design on the wall and now an almost stencil looking rock of the design at your feet.

“That was awesome!” You exclaim, looking at the two twins before you with awe sparkling in your eyes and making your face stretch out in a large grin as you bounce up and down with giddy joy. Both Dirk and Hal smile with pride and curl up one clawed foot into an almost fist like gesture which they then bump together like a dragon’s version of a fist bump before uncurling and lowering down again. “Have you done that before? Who am I kidding you must’ve done that before.” You say, words coming out much faster in your excitement. Dirk smirks and Hal chuckles before Dirk speaks. “Actually that’s the first time we’ve done something like that before. We just think alike sometimes.” You have a feeling it’s more like a lot of the time but all the same it amazes you that this is the first time they’ve done that. It looked so practiced and perfect! How did they even know that would work? They must be geniuses! “That’s amazing chap!” Dirk is beaming with pride and Hal smirks and nudges him a bit which earns him a brief glare before Dirk picks up the rock laying on the ground and slides it onto his tail. It’s surprising and cool to you that he can lift that rock with his tail, you don’t even think you could lift it with your arms, but you don’t get to express this before Dirk speaks again. “It was nice seeing you Hal but we should probably get this to Ms. Harley so she can get started.” Hal nods. “Course. Totally not leaving to spend time with anyone in particular.” He has that same smug look on again that he had before when talking vaguely to Dirk and he earns another glare which makes Hal chuckle. “Go on Dirk. It was cool seeing you.” “Yeah. See ya.” “Just get out of here already.” You can tell the Striders aren’t good with goodbyes so you quickly distract Dirk by asking him to help you get on his back again and from there you slip the blanket over yourself again and head out.

You can’t see or hear much the entire flight back but things seem to go smoothly enough and before you know it you’re landing back at home. You didn’t notice how much time had gone by but when you left it had been around ten and now the sun is starting to set meaning it’s about nine or ten again. You missed lunch and dinner! You hadn’t noticed before but now that you think about it you are quite hungry. You hope grandma doesn’t mind you getting something to eat so late.

You and Dirk both slip inside and separate, Dirk to see if your gran is still awake so if she is he can give her the blueprint and tell her about whatever it is they have planned and you to go get some food, before coming back together again in your bedroom in order to say goodnight to each other before passing out.


	10. Another Night Time Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake sleepwalks and Dirk finally meets the grey blob.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm super sorry this chapter is so short but I've been really busy getting ready for a trip that I'm taking this weekend on top of all my other responsibilities that I didn't have much time to write but I didn't want to leave you guys with a four, or likely more, day break between updates so I hurried to get what I could done for you all. There will be a much better chapter written as soon as I can find the time after getting home I promise!

Another month and a half passes since the day you went to visit Hal with Jake and you’ve spent most of that time either out adventuring and bonding with Jake or inside Ms. Harley’s workroom with her to work on the device for Hal. This has lead to even less alone time than usual as well as further stress over the device and whether or not you’ll ever get it to work. Because of this you’ve been getting less sleep again and have become much easier to wake up once more, backtracking from the improvements you made during the time you’ve been with Jake.

However this does come in handy one particular night when you hear Jake crawl out of bed. You’ve gotten more used to his sleepwalking at this point so you don’t even need to glance at his eyes to know he’s asleep still. Usually you’d let him be to try and sleep but tonight you know you aren’t falling asleep so you figure you might as well follow Jake just for the hell of it.

He heads downstairs and you follow, carefully watching his feet in case he trips but he doesn’t just like he always doesn’t. If anything he seems more nimble asleep then awake. He’s so reckless and full of energy normally that it’s much easier for him to end up with small cuts or bruises from small and frankly kind of dumb things. It’s charming though and either way it doesn’t happen like, at all when he’s asleep.

He makes it down the stairs and follows a similar path to the path he made the very first time you caught him sleepwalking like this, heading for the living room and the window in it that points out into the woods. This time however you stop before you reach the window with him because of what you see in it. 

As you peer outside you can see the defined form of a dark grey dragon like you’ve never seen before. It’s about Dave’s size and you can’t make out many details of it so you can’t tell if it’s an adult and that’s it’s final size or if it still has more room to grow. It’s looking back at you both though it doesn’t react to seeing Jake come up to the window nor you watching it from where you stand a bit behind him. It has piercing red eyes that seem either the same color as Dave’s or even a bit brighter though not by much. It doesn’t seem to have any distinct markings that you can make out at least, just a solid mass of dark grey offset by bright red eyes. You have no idea what kind of dragon it could be. You’ve never seen anything like it before and its lack of fear about being this close to you guys and in what is clearly your territory terrifies you done to your bones. An adult dragon wouldn’t be very fearful necessarily of a newly bonded teen dragon but they would at least avoid their territory if possible and be careful not to anger them and that one’s smaller than you so to be that confident it must really take some balls.

Jake just stares at it and it just stares back for the longest time before turning towards the forest as the leaves rustle behind it. Your eyes dart to the movement as a small human pokes out. It’s even harder to tell their features from this distance in the dark so you can’t determine their age but their height would suggest teen or even an older child. They have bleach white hair somehow despite coming from the woods and they seem mostly clean. You get the feeling that you’ve seen them before even though you don’t recognize them at all from the town and it creeps you out a little bit.

The human and the dragon begin speaking to each other, the dragon holding an air of cockiness while the human holds one of rebellious confidence yet kindness. The human is standing tall but is making smooth and friendly gestures to the dragon and the little you can make out of their face shows weariness but determination. The dragon is moving its tail back and forth slowly and holding itself tall as well with a cheeky grin on its face. However its grin quickly falls as their conversation seems to quickly change into angry quarreling that makes you even more nervous than you already were before.

The human seems to notice your presence, glancing to the window for the first time since arriving and they startle and back up. They at least seem to fear the fact that they were caught in your area a bit and they glance at the dragon to give them one final sharp word before dashing back into the trees. The dragon however stays, now smirking as he faces you both once more.

Jake slowly turns and starts back upstairs and you just sit there for a while, glancing back and forth between him and the dragon outside. Once Jake disappears upstairs however you decide you can’t pass up this chance. You need to talk to this guy who's been here three times without permission now and this is the only chance you might get to do so. Everyone is asleep, Jake is safe upstairs, and this dragon is just sitting there watching through the window. It almost feels like a trap but even so you just have to figure this out.

You very quietly sneak out the door and head over to this other dragon to try and figure out what his deal is. Up close he still looks rather featureless, a bland dark almost black grey covers his entire body besides his bright red eyes and he has nothing to show what kind of dragon he might be. Who knows what he is or how dangerous he is to you.

“I want to play a game.”

You stop dead in your tracks a little ways in front of him at the line. It’s probably one of the most ridiculous things you’ve ever heard and it doesn’t help that thanks to Jake you know it’s a line from a movie though you doubt he knows that from how proud he seems of the line. It doesn’t help either that his voice is ridiculously high pitched and scratchy like some toddler who spent too much time whining and screaming at their parents and ruined their voice. It takes a lot of your willpower not to break out laughing at it all, your body going from tensed out of fear to tensed out of restraint. This kid really is crazy.

Like really crazy.

“Ok like what kind of game?” You ask once you can get words past your lips without laughter slipping out as well. Thankfully he takes your pause as fear rather than amusement. “You’ll find out soon.” “Oh come on. Can’t I have a little sneak peek?” He scowls a bit at your goading. “We’ll play when I’m ready to play!” You can’t help but chuckle a bit at that and he hisses at you like a cat. “Yeah? And when will that be kiddo?” He seems viscerally angered by that, growling as fiercely as he can and trying to make himself look as big as possible too. It just ends up making him look even more like a kid throwing a tantrum. Kinda like Dave when you first teased him about his dislike for the lava abilities he had. 

However, one thing this guy has that Dave mostly doesn’t is unpredictability. 

Out of nowhere the guy jumps at you and you just barely manage to get out of the way as he throws his entire body at you, something dragons very rarely do as an attack. And for good reason as this guy quickly finds out when he faceplants into the dirt. He gets up again as quickly as he can, scrambling to his feet and growling at you as if he didn’t just fail his attack worse than Dave during his first training session. Hell even Hal would probably at least be able to land a hit even if it wouldn’t be all that strong. At least while his device isn’t ready yet. 

“Ok fine. No teasing then I guess. Well what's this little ‘game’ of yours going to be?” Instantly his wide grin returns to his face and he goes back to holding himself tall, clearly very very full of himself. “The game is called you listen to me and you and your family is spared for a little bit longer.” You stop dead in your tracks. What is this little twerp suggesting? Does he think he can beat you after his little failure moments ago? Really? And is he threatening your family? Possibly both of them? Does he know about Hal? Your first instinct is to laugh at his attempt to threaten you especially after his little show of power before but something about this guy makes you uneasy. Part of it is definitely that you still have no clue what kind of dragon he is and therefore you don’t know how much damage his powers can do but there’s more to it than that too. You just can’t quite seem to determine what else it is.

He must take your hesitation as you getting scared of his ‘game’ because he grins smugly and cackles, like full on evil Disney villain cackles. This snaps you out of your thoughts however and you make sure that your face is as neutral as ever, not showing the bit of uneasiness that his ‘game’ does give you. “And what exactly do you want me to do?” He grins even wider.

“Kill my sister.”


	11. Myths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose tells Jake a few stories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm back from vacation and had so much inspiration I actually got a chapter done in less than a day! Nice! Anyway, I keep writing these short chapter summaries for you guys but I don't actually know if any of you like them so if you guys could let me know if I should keep doing them that'd be great. Thanks and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

When you wake up Dirk almost instantly says he wants to visit Roxy. You’re a bit confused by the underlying urgency he’s trying to hide from you and so you try to question him on it but he brushes you off until you just give in a hope that he’ll explain it to you later after he’s had his time with Roxy. You’ve found that she tends to calm him so he might be more open to talking about it, whatever it is, after seeing her but that also makes you a bit nervous about whatever might be making him nervous enough to feel the need to see Roxy right away like this. No matter what it is though you agree to go see Roxy and head over.

Once at Jane’s house you find that she’s out at the stall today for her father but that Roxy is home because her sister Rose is visiting. You expect Dirk to immediately back out both because he’s not the fondest of Rose and to give Roxy her time with the sister she rarely sees but instead he just walks up to Roxy once you both are let in by Jane’s father and asks to talk to her alone. She must understand how strange and worrying this action is too, you aren’t surprised about that at least, because she readily agrees and heads off to another room with him, leaving you alone in the living room with Rose.

It’s not that you don’t like Rose but the silence around you as she watches you carefully is awkward and unsettling. It gives off the feeling of her knowing so much more than you ever could and of her wanting to poke and prod at you and your mind to milk every single little bit of information she can out of you. It sends shivers down your spine as you look at her. She’s around Dave’s size with dark purple scales and eyes though both of those features almost seem to sparkle and shine a bit more than they do in any other dragon you’ve seen. Dirk told you that she was a rather uniquely, for her type of dragon at least, gust dragon and she definitely had the thin, graceful, body type for it. She's staring at you as if waiting for you to say something and when you do speak she smirks just a bit as if proud of herself for some reason.

“Um... It’s good to properly meet you!” “Indeed it is. I assume you are unaware of why Dirk came to my sister so urgently this morning?” You aren’t expecting her to say that but when she does you’re at least happy that you have something to talk about. “No, I don’t! He seemed to be in quite the rush though so I figure it has to be something mighty important!” She chuckles a bit as if assumed by some novelty toy at the market. “You could certainly say that.” Before you can continue the conversation she changes the topic. “Have you heard of The Tale Of Twins?” You tilt your head in confusion and she smiles. “Well no I haven’t chum! What is it?” “It’s a myth among dragons.” You perk up and grin. “Oh! Well, I’d really like to hear it if you don’t mind!” She chuckles. “I’d be glad to Jake.”

“According to legend, there will come a time where two will be born from one. A human and a dragon born together from the union of two species, the ultimate bond personified. The twins will be born as a bonded partners but there will always be a divide between them a game of survival for them to play. They will never truly know where they came from and each will have a different and opposite outlook on life. One will see life and everything inside it as something conquer and destroy while the other will see life as precious and something to protect. These differing views will lead to much arguments between the twins as the ultimate bond gives birth to the worst one. Before too long the twins will cause either the destruction of both species or the formation of peace enteral between them. All of it depends on which path the people they met decide to follow. One of love and care or one of destruction and death. Either way, the world will forever be changed by the twins and their companions.” 

Rose finishes the story and looks to you expectantly but all you can do is stare in shock with your jaw on the ground and eyes open wide. You had never known dragons had mythology nor had mythology ever been something you were all too interested in but now you were seriously regretting that because if all mythology was like that story it sounded awesome. Rose chuckles at you wonder and shock. “I see you enjoyed my tale.” You shake your head and snap yourself out of your daze. “Yes, I did! That was amazing!” You’re bouncing a little on your feet and your cheeks will probably hurt later from how much you’re smiling. Rose chuckles again. “That’s good to hear. Really I should tell off Dirk for not telling you any of our stories sooner. Though I suppose he’s never really listened to them anyway.” “I don’t see why! Do you have more of them?” She smiles wider and nods. “Why yes of course we do. Would you like to hear them?” “Would I ever?!” She chuckles and gestures with one claw for you to sit on a nearby couch which you do though you can’t help but continue bouncing excitedly even as you sit down. Rose sets herself down gracefully in front of you and lays down, crossing her feet in front of herself and letting her tail relax beside and away from herself

“This next one is believed to have come true hundreds of years ago leading to the first bonding of human and dragon. The first dragon was a mix of all the groups of dragons, fire, water, air, and earth all lived in her but there was one thing she did not have. Emotions. She lived only to survive and that was it. She had no wants, only needs. She had no likes nor dislikes. She trusted no one and loved no one as well. But then she met a human, the first human, when she had been injured too badly to care for herself. Certain she would die she tried to find a tucked away area and instead stumbled upon a human man who took one look at her and offered to help her. This man who was so much smaller than her with no control over fire, water, air, or earth whom she could easily destroy if she so pleased offered his hand to her and asked if he could help her. She did not trust the man but she saw no other hope for her survival so she reluctantly agreed. The man smiled at her and lead her to his home, invited her to come in though she decided to remain outside, and then helped her heal. She was confused when he helped her and did not harm her or try to use her after she was healed. When she was able to leave he simply waved goodbye to her and watched her fly off. She went home and contemplated what had happened for a while and found that she felt something strange towards that man. She felt gratitude. An emotion. A feeling. She had never encountered anything like it before and it compelled her to return to him. So she did. And she kept coming back too until she decided not to leave again and from there the first bonded pair was created.”

Once again you can practically feel your eyes sparkling with wonder and amazement when Rose finishes. She smiles at you as you speak. “That. Was. Awesome! I have to ask gran if she knows that story when I get home!” “I would guess she does. Your grandmother is a smart woman.” You brush right over the fact that Rose says that as if she knows your gran which she almost certainly doesn’t in your excitement. “There has to be more right? There can’t just be two.” Rose chuckles. “There are many more but we shall only have time for one more.” You’re a bit upset by this, these stories are so exciting, almost like movies minus the visuals, but you don’t get to be upset for long before Rose starts her final story.

“This final one is another one for the future often believed to be what will happen should the twin of destruction be obeyed. Should that future come to pass it is said that things will start small with the murder of the twin bent on nothing more than peace. Bonded pairs within the group of the twin’s companions will fight, arguments driving divides in between them as the bonds holding them together strain and shatter. Then the group itself will start to dissolve, friends turning against friends and killing each other in a bloodbath until only a few remain. This fight will mark the beginning of the end for both dragons and humans alike. The survivors will rush to their homes to tell others of the betrayal of the other species and war will break loose. Bonded partners will kill each other first and then when each species is alone they will attack each other's home. Houses will burn to the ground and earthquakes will destroy even more as plants consume the borders of human land and tornadoes destroy the center while floods destroy even further. Dragons will fall from the sky and be killed in their homes on the mountains. Eggs will be smashed and young dragons murdered or left for dead, unable to care for themselves. Both species will wipe each other out completely until none are left expect the single twin, smiling as they look over the carnage they have caused.”

The final tale leaves a shiver down your spine as a goodbye gift. It almost seems like a word of warning from Rose but you don’t get to ask her anything about it before she stands and says goodbye to you. You barely get to say a returning farewell before she is gone, having disappeared to some deeper section of the home.

You sit on the couch for a bit and contemplate the stories you were just told. All of them seemed so big and fantastical but the way Rose talked about them, especially that last one, made them seem like a predestined future that will for sure happen at one time or another. They all seemed like huge adventures that even make you wonder if the little things you call adventures can really even be called that. Sure movies sometimes make you feel that way too but then you can just remind yourself that it’s not real and it’s all embellished but with this it just seemed so... Real yet not real at the same time that it’s harder to push them aside as fake. All the same, you try not to think about that too much and one thing that helps you stop thinking about it is when Dirk comes back a few moments into your inner monologue.

You perk your head up as you hear him come in and smile at him. “Dirk! Is everything all right?” He seems deep in thought but at least a little bit more calm than he was earlier and he nods to you. “Yeah. We’re chill now.” Roxy gives him a glance but nods as well, smiling a bit. “Yeah! Everything is as right as rain!” She giggles at her own little water dragon joke and you can’t help but chuckle along with her. Even Dirk gives a smile and an eye roll. “What was all this nonsense even about?” You question curiously but Dirk waves you off. “Nothing. I just got a little nervous over something stupid like usual. It’s fine.” Roxy pokes him with her tail gently. “Hey don’t get down on yourself like that Dirky! It was a serious concern but now it’s ok!” Dirk rolls his eyes at her again. “Yeah yeah, I get it Rox.” She smiles wider. “Good! Now off you go! I’ve got sister time to get back to!” “Yeah. Sorry ‘bout interrupting that Rox.” “Shush! You would do the same for me so I’ll do this for you! Now run along you two!” You chuckle at her again and Dirk nods before turning to you as Roxy heads off to find where Rose got off to. 

Dirk’s face is serious again as you look at him and it worries you. You frown a bit and tilt your head. “You sure everything is alright chap?” “Yeah, it’s fine Jake. We should get back before Ms. Harley gets mad at us for missing lunch as well as breakfast.” You can tell that’s an excuse, it’s nowhere near lunchtime yet, but you allow it seeing as he’s clearly not going to give you anything more to go off of than what he already has. That frustrates you, you want to help him like he has you gosh darn it, but you can’t do much about it other than let him know you’re there for him. So that’s what you do. “Ok chap but if you need anything just tell me ok?” “Yeah. Of course Jake.” He nods in agreement and you hope he’s sincere about that so you smile. “Good! Now let’s hurry on home.” You’re hinting that you want to fly home and he rolls his eyes as it’s only a fifteen-minute walk and about a two-minute fly there but he’s smiling softly and indulges you so you count it as a victory.

As you fly you’re too wrapped up in the wonders of being in the air to remember the stories Rose told you and in fact you even forget them until after lunch but then they hit you again and you feel a strong urge to include Dirk on your thoughts so you run upstairs to your shared room from where you had been sitting in the living room watching movies to talk to him about it. You find him sitting at the desk your grandma had modified to be taller for him working on brainstorming things for Hal’s device which you still don’t understand a single detail of.

“Dirk! Chap! I forget to mention this before but Rose told me some myths and things while we were over at Jane’s earlier!” Dirk turns his head to you first with the scaled hood over his eye that serves, for expressive purposes at least, as his eyebrow raised before noticing your excitement and turning to face you more fully. “Yeah? Which ones did she tell you?” “Well first she told me one she called The Tale Of Twins, then she told me one about how the peace between dragons and humans supposedly started, and finally there was one about what would happen if one of the twins from the first one is listened to.” He frowns and looks back at his stuff for a moment but you get the feeling it’s more to hide his face than anything else. “Dirk? Is something up chap?” He turns back to you and shakes his head. “No, I just- It’s nothing.” You frown, concerned about what he could possibly be keeping from you. “Dirk come on. What’s wrong?” “It’s nothing Jake I’m fine. Don’t listen to Rose. She thinks scaring people is fun and she likes to pretend she knows everything.” “Well, I wasn’t especially scared by her stories. More amazed really! And she seemed nice enough to me!” “Yeah just- don’t listen to her ok?” “If you say so chap.” He turns back to his work after nodding again and says nothing more to you, leaving you to watch him, frowning in silence. You don’t know what to say or do. You know obviously something has him stressed and in pain but you don’t know what and he’s not telling you so you don’t know what to do about it. With no goal you just feel… Useless.

You hate it.

Eventually, you resign yourself to the feeling and head downstairs again to keep watching your movies but even Lara Croft can’t cheer you up. Instead, you just sit and stare, thinking continuously about what to do about Dirk.


	12. Falling Apart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave comes to visit but things aren't so good for Dirk or Jake right now.

You can’t believe you’re actually thinking about this. That stupid dragon who you don’t even know the fucking name of told you to murder his sister whoever the fuck that is and just because he threatened your family despite you have zero evidence he actually could hurt them in any way you’re actually thinking about doing it. Even after you met with Roxy yesterday and she reassured you that there was no way any of your family was in any danger from this guy you still can’t get this stupid shit out of your fucking head. 

The worst part?

If you decide to do this you know exactly how to do it. You have it all planned out down to the minor details because of your stupid mind and how it works. 

You hate this so fucking much.

Jake can obviously tell something is up but you can’t bring yourself to involve him in this and possibly put him in the way of harm so you can’t tell him shit and he obviously hates that. He’s always so eager to help you and now he can’t and you can tell he hates that a lot but you can’t do anything about it and it hurts so bad to know you’re making him feel like shit and worry about you. You’ve pretty much completely isolated yourself at this point, stopping helping Ms. Harley with the device beyond brainstorming in your room in a desperate attempt to distract yourself, refusing Jake when he asks to go flying or on an adventure with you, even refusing to just go downstairs and watch movies with him. You can tell he’s getting really worried about you and hates the way you’re pushing him away but you can’t help it. It’s what’s best for him. If he got involved in this who knows what might happen to him? It’s better if only you deal with this. That way fewer people get hurt. That way no one important gets hurt.

You’re spending pretty much all of your time these days pretending to be brainstorming in your room when really you’re thinking about that stupid dragon and his stupid threat. You haven’t been getting any sleep, you only eat when Ms. Harley forces you downstairs for meals and even then you barely manage to shove anything down your gullet, and you haven’t had an actual conversation with someone in weeks. It’s been nearly two months now since that night and still it haunts you.

Especially because of Rose and her stupid myths. She knew Jake would get excited about them. She knew that would mean he’d share them with you. Somehow she knew about that stupid dragon from the woods and she knew you’d connect the fake ass stories to your situation and she knew that would scare the ever living shit out of you. She did all of this on fucking purpose you know she did and it’s making you all the more nervous because what if she’s right? She usually somehow is so who’s to say she isn’t now? What if those stories aren’t fake bullshit made up to scare children or put them to sleep depending on the story but are in fact real and fucking happening to you as you fucking speak? What if that dragon is the twin? Which one is he then? Logic would say the evil one obviously but what if he’s only wanting to kill his sister because she’s the evil one? But then what about the threat? Was that fake too? You have no fucking clue and it scares the shit out of you that if it is real than he very well could actually have the power to hurt your family if you don’t listen to him which could possibly lead to the destruction of everyone and everything.

You don’t know what to do or where to start in order to figure out what to do.

All you know is you’re scared and alone but that you can’t involve anyone else in this. Hell you even regret just telling Roxy about that dragon. What if he goes after her now? She’s tough and more than capable of taking care of herself in most situations but against one of the twins? She’d likely die easily especially if he is the evil one. Everything had just seemed to be getting good for once and now it was all crumbling down around you again.

At least the guy hasn’t come back to harrass you yet. You had told him you weren’t going to do it that night but he could probably see in your face despite your best efforts your hesitation on that because he glared but didn’t growl as he bared his teeth at you before you turned and hurried inside, afraid he might attack you if you stayed there any longer. When you’d glanced out the window on your way back upstairs he had been gone. You haven’t seen or heard from him since that so that at least gives you some time to think about it. You don’t want to take too long just in case though. 

Even more time passes, about another two months meaning you’ve been with Jake for about a year and a half now, and everything between the two of you has gone cold again. Not even just awkward like it had been at first for a while but just straight up cold. Both of you are avoiding each other and you yearn for things to go back to how they were but at this point you’ve probably ruined it too much for anything to be the same as it was. You’ve pushed him away too much and now he hates you for it. You’ve even moved outside. Your desk is still in his room as far as your aware but now you spend most of your time outside in the back of the house staring out into the woods and thinking. You claimed it was because you were too big to fit in Jake’s room anymore which is mostly a lie since you haven’t grown quite that much yet but really it’s because you can’t bear the frigid silence you both give each other whenever you’re in the same room together and you can’t bear to watch him sleep knowing that when he wakes up again he won’t be happy to see you like he used to be. Knowing that his sleepwalking is what lead you to meet this stupid dragon and therefore causing all of this. You don’t blame him of course but you can’t help but feel a little bitter about it. If only he just stayed in bed that night. You would’ve never seen that stupid dragon and everything would still be fine. You two would still get along and he’d still smile at you like he used to with his eyes sparkling with joy and wonder and you could fly across the sky with him as he clung to your neck with his chest pressed close to you as he giggled in excitement, his heart beating so hard you swear you could feel it as he’s filled with adrenaline and happiness.

You miss it so much.

You miss him so much.

But it’s too late to do anything about it.

You screwed this all up and now you have to deal with the consequences of your actions.

But damn it if those consequences don’t stab you in the heart more than an actual stab to the heart would.

You’re sitting outside moping and thinking about Jake when you hear wings flapping above your head. You look up and see Dave flying down towards you. You try to pick yourself up off the ground and act normal, this is the first time since you met that stupid dragon that any of your family has come to visit you so they don’t know yet just how much you’ve fucked everything up. 

You hope to keep it that way if you can.

That fails almost right away.

“Woah Dirk man what’s up? You look like shit.” Dave says, walking over to you with a worried expression on his face. You try to shrug it off and act as if nothing is wrong. “I don’t know what you’re talking about dude.” “Come on Dirk. You look like you’ve been sleeping outside for weeks or even longer and I don’t smell Jake on you barely at all. Where is the little guy? Last time I was here he was stuck to you like glue. What happened?” “Dude nothing happened. He’s just out adventuring like usual.” That’s not a lie, you did manage to catch a glimpse of him heading into the forest earlier though there wasn’t the same bounce in his step or sparkle in his eye as he left. “And you’re not out there with him? Dirk, what the fuck is going on? Did you guys fight or something?” Dave seems genuinely confused and concerned about you as he tries to figure out what’s going on with you. Well, good luck guessing what’s happening Dave. Good luck guessing that you’ve ruined your bond with Jake because you pushed him away out of stress because of some stupid threat from some stupid dragon that made you worry about him and the rest of your family. 

Fuck now you’re tearing up. You can’t let Dave see- “Dude are you crying?” Shit. Too late. “No, of course, I’m not.” You look away from him but it’s too late. He’s seen and now he’s even more worried about you. “Dirk man no you’re crying what’s going on? Dude, I’m worried about you.” He’s moving his head with his neck so that no matter how you turn your head he can still see your face as you try and fail to fight back tears. He’s on to you and you know it but you want to protect him so bad. You know now that he knows for sure something’s up he’s not going to give in until you tell him what it is but damn it you want to keep him safe and out of this. He’ll be able to tell if you’re lying too thanks to the fact that he was raised with the same emotion hiding and reading lessons from Bro as you were. Fuck. There’s literally nothing you can do now and you hate it. You feel so useless and powerless and you can’t control anything or change how things will go down now and it feels like the world around you is falling apart and squeezing in on you at the same time.

“Woah shit hey Dirk chill man it’s just me. I’m right here we’re safe we’re ok. It’s gonna be alright dude.” Dave tries to be as comforting as he can to you, staring directly into your teary eyes as he speaks as gently as he can. It’s exactly what you would do for him when he used to get panicky about the tests and trails Bro would put you two through in your younger years. Technically he’s still going through them now but he doesn’t break down as much as he used to. At least as far as you know. He hasn’t told you of any more breakdowns at least. You hope he’s not having any breakdowns without you there to help him. Either way having him use your comforting methods on you both makes you feel proud and ashamed as all hell. Proud of him for instantly trying to help you and for using what he knows works at least for him instead of panicking but ashamed that he feels the need to comfort you. You’re the older brother you’re the one supposed to be helping and protecting him not the other way around. It’s not his job to keep you safe and happy that’s your job. It’s your job to keep him safe and happy. This isn’t right it just isn’t. You’re supposed to be strong and tough and powerful and you’re supposed to be the one comforting him not the other way around.

Dave wraps his neck around yours so he can tuck his head behind yours and you can do the same for his as he tries to comfort you to the best of his abilities.

It takes a while but you finally get your emotions back under control and uncurl from him. He looks worried as all hell over you but you just look away from him. “Sorry.” “Dude no don’t be sorry for that shit. Obviously something is stressing you the fuck out. What’s up?” 

You don’t know whether it’s is dismissal of any blame being on you for your terrible bullshit outburst when you both have been raised from the moment you hatched to believe the exact opposite, the way he just comforted the fuck out of you, or the genuine worry over you he’s showing but you just can’t hold back from telling him anymore even as you literally try to bite down on your own tongue in order to stop the words from coming out of your mouth in order to protect him. You tell him everything from the first time you saw Jake sleepwalk to how you’ve been pushing him away recently and how painful it is and he just sits there and listens to you. For all your love for Roxy, it feels nice to just have someone listen to you without interrupting to try and say something in your defense every two seconds. Instead, he listens and occasionally tries to make light of events with jokes or rambles to give you time so you don’t get too overwhelmed again and something about it just works. You don’t even really know what about it but it does. Might be a Strider thing might not be you don’t fucking know. All you know is that when it’s over and Dave finally does give you his serious advice it makes it much more impactful and it keeps you in a much happier and more open mood to take his advice into account.

“Look Dirk dude in all seriousness from what I saw of you and Jake you two fit together better than two gears in a giant clock. With you two apart everything has come to a screeching halt and no one is making any progress. If anything you’re moving backward. You two need to come back together and you need to tell him about what’s going on so he can help you, man. That’s all he wants and honestly man? It’s what you need. You put all this shit on your own shoulders alone and all it causes is damage to yourself and the people around you. You need to let people help you sometimes man. Trust me if anyone knows how fucking difficult that is it’s me but honestly Dirk you need to at least try ok? If not for yourself then at least for me.”

You have to stop and think about that for a long time but at the end of the day you have to admit he’s right. You do need help with this. And not just by telling people about it and then ignoring everything they say like you did with Roxy. God you need to apologize to her later about doing that. You need to take people’s help more often. That’s going to be… Difficult to say the least. But a start is better than nothing so you look up to Dave and ask him one question.

“Will you help me make it up to Jake?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm blown away by the support this story is getting so far and I really can't thank you all enough for reading my crappy story. Recently I played a game with a friend where we had to guess where a story was going with it's plot and whoever got closer won and it got me intrigued for where you guys might think this story is going so go ahead and tell me down in the comments! Thanks again for reading!


	13. Starting Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dirk tries to make up for his mistakes

Before long it’s the holidays again but this year just feels… Empty. Everything has lately but you had been hoping things might be better during the holidays but they just aren’t. You still feel like something is missing from your life and left a hole behind in your heart. Dirk has still been avoiding you and you don’t know why or what’s wrong with him and well, it hurts. A lot.

It hurts so much in fact that you don’t wake up early to decorate when the time comes and even spend a while just laying in bed staring at the spot across the room where Dirk used to sleep. You miss waking up in the morning to find him either laying there or more often working at his desk. But right now he’s in neither spot and you know he’s likely outside like he has been since he first started avoiding you. You sigh and finally slip on some glasses, not bothering to put on clothes and instead just leaving on your Avatar themed pjs, and heading downstairs.

And that’s when you spot something you never thought you’d see.

Dirk is up instead of you and he’s inside the house again and beyond that, he’s helping put up the decorations.

You stand there in wide-eyed shock halfway down the staircase until Dirk turns to you. “Oh. Hey Jake.” He... He acknowledged you. He spoke to you. And not to brush you off either. This has to be a dream. 

You know what even if it is you don’t care.

“Hey chap.” There’s a long awkward silence before Dirk turns towards the kitchen where you can only assume your gran and Jade are for a moment to call to them that he’ll be back in a bit to keep helping. Then he turns back to you as you give him a confused look. “I thought you might want to go for a little fly.” Your eyes light up and you grin. “Why of course I do chap! Just let me get dressed real quick!” You dash back upstairs and hear him chuckle at you from down below. You go back down after hurriedly getting dressed in your normal outfit and you find that he’s waiting for you outside. You run over to him and find yourself wrapping your arms around his neck after you reach him, a bright smile on your face and your heart in just a little less pain than it was before. You can tell he’s surprised by your actions but you say nothing on it before climbing onto his back, you had started getting better at getting on him without his assistance before he started ignoring you, and pointing up into the sky and off towards the woods in front of you both. “Away my trusty steed!” You can feel the vibrations in Dirk’s neck as he chuckles and you glance down to see his smile before he takes off and you have to lean down in order to hold onto him better.

Flying on his back has always felt amazing, being above the clouds or inside or them or even just looking down at the forest below as you skim a few feet above them has always been a rush of excitement and adrenaline for you, but now it just feels even better. It feels amazing to be up here with him again because this is something the two of you enjoy and only the two of you enjoy, well maybe there are other people who ride dragons but as far as you know you two are the only ones brave enough to do it, and beyond that it also means that he’s not ignoring you. That he’s going to talk to you again and interact with you and that everything is going to be ok again. It’s all going to go back to how it used to be between you. He’ll move back into your room and you’ll watch movies together again and go on adventures together again and fly together again. Whatever was wrong before isn’t bothering him anymore and everything can be how it used to be again.

Just the thought of him spending time with you again makes your heart beat almost as much as being miles above the ground on his back does. You stay up there for who knows how long, laughing and smiling as you cling to his neck and press against him until finally, he starts to lower you both down to the ground again. Once you hit the ground you sadly slide off, half expecting to wake up or to have everything go back to Dirk giving you the cold shoulder as you try not to cry every night as you think about the emptiness he left behind when he left. But it doesn’t. Instead, Dirk turns to you and starts to speak.

“Look, Jake, I’m sorry. I know I’ve been an asshole of epic fucking proportions for a while now and that I probably can’t ever make up for just how much I’ve fucked up but I’m sorry and I want to try to make things better between us again I really do.”

You sit there in shocked silence for a while, just taking in his words. The words you never thought you’d hear. You thought you had lost him forever but here he is apologizing to you and saying he wants to make things better again. You don’t really know what to say in all honesty. You thought that even if Dirk did want to make things better that his pride would stop him from doing anything but it hasn’t and that… That makes you feel really special. If he fought past his pride and fear for you then clearly you’re something important to him like nothing else is a boy howdy you really don’t know how to take that or how to feel about it.

So you don’t think about it. You tuck it far away and pretend you never thought it in the first place.

“Well I don’t know about making things better right away chap but I’d be willing to give you a second chance if you would do something for me.” He tilts his head at you and gives a nervous, “What do you want me to do?” His nervousness about this is adorable and you can’t help but grin a bit wider before you answer him. “Come sleep in my bedroom with me again and help us decorate for the holidays.” He relaxes and smiles. “Course Jake.” You smile wide and hug him once again and this time you feel him rest his head against the back of yours as his clawed foot very gently rests against your back. It reminds you of times past only calmer and sweeter and you have to say while usually you’re a very live in the moment always moving kind of fellow this calm moment is quite enjoyable. It’s just the two of you sharing a hug as you start to forgive Dirk and as he makes an effort to make things between the both of you better again. Being a man of movies you have to say this feels a bit like so many scenes from many other movies but if anything for you that just makes this moment all the sweeter.

It doesn’t last forever however and you both do break apart eventually and head inside again. You spend the rest of the day happily putting up decorations with your family and then sitting and watching movies until the sun goes down. Holiday after holiday special passes you by and for once your focus isn’t on the screen in front of you or even your sibling or grandmother. Instead, your thoughts are mostly focused on the dragon sitting beside the couch and right next to you. Your sister has Bec half in her lap and half in the middle of the couch while she sits on the opposite end of you and your grandma sits in a recliner beside her but Dirk is sitting on your side of the room with you. He sits there watching the TV with more focus than you as you focus on him instead. You can’t even figure out why exactly you’re focused on him so you just label it as joy to have him back and leave it at that.

Time passes by and before you know it it’s Halloween. 

To be honest this year you had no idea what to dress up as but Dirk quickly solved that for you with a very creative solution. He dressed you up as Indiana Jones and then with some help from your gran he made himself a boulder costume. He knew that was one of your favorite scenes and you had to admit you were quite excited about both the idea itself and the results that came of the idea. People praised you all night just like they had the year before despite you and Dirk both being well over the generally accepted age for trick-or-treating. You even got a chuckle out of Jane when you showed up at her place. You were very proud of that. And when you eventually tired yourself out of running around Dirk lifted you up and placed you on his neck right by his head where it stuck out of his costume and carried you home while you lay there nearly falling asleep. He then carried you up the stairs and to the bedroom where he laid you on your bed while you were still all dressed up before you passed out, leaving him trapped in his costume until you woke up the next morning and could help him get it off. He wasn’t even mad at you when you couldn’t hold back a chuckle at waking up to see him struggling to get it off at the side of your bed the next morning nor was he mad for you getting him stuck in the thing for the entire night either.

You two bond even further over the rest of the month and the time after it and then it’s Thanksgiving.

Normally this holiday is a bit more toned down by your family’s standards with just a bit of a banquet and some movies but this year Dirk seemed to want to change that. Or at least make the celebration a bit bigger. He did this by inviting over Roxy, Rose, Dave, Bro, John, and Jane for food as well. He had originally invited over Jane’s dad and Roxy’s mother as well but Jane’s dad had to stay at the bakery to work and Roxy’s mother ended up busy as well though Roxy had given Dirk a rather strange look when she had said that. You had quickly brushed it from your mind, however, as you invited your new guests inside only to be reminded that Bro wasn’t going to fit nor would there be much space to move around anyway’s if everyone else came in especially with Roxy and Dirk starting to near their final teenage sizes. Once they reached that they would stop growing for a while until they reached about twenty-five and started growing again until they reached their adult sizes. Sometimes you forget that dragons are actually quite different from humans in many ways.

Anyway, after your brief forgetfulness the humans plus Dirk carry the food and some tables outside for an outdoor Thanksgiving. Roxy tries to help too but gets told by your grandmother that she is a guest and shouldn’t have to work. She tries to use this same logic to get Jane to wait outside as well but Jane politely refuses and that girl can be mighty stubborn when she wants to be. John doesn’t even do that much helping but he does enough to be counted before Jane releases him with a sigh so that he can go talk to Dave. Those two boys have formed quite the bond you’ve noticed. It’s actually kind of cute and sweet to see them getting along so well. Jane and John have always been practically family to you so it’s kind of like seeing your little brother talking to his best friend who just so happens to be your best friend’s little brother. Even if you and Dirk are still on very shaky feet yet. It’s nice anyway. 

In fact the entire dinner is nice with all these families coming together and bonding over things they have in common like your gran and Bro talking about teaching their children to hunt, Bro with his little brother’s powers and your gran with teaching you and Jade how to use guns, Jade and Rose having friendly arguments over whether dogs or cats are better, Jane and Roxy chatting about essentially the same thoughts you are having about the overall mood of the gathering, and even John getting pranks in on all of the Striders and Lalondes which makes everyone laugh. Overall the entire thing is probably the most enjoyable and fun Thanksgivings you’ve ever had even if you don’t end up watching any movies.

In fact, the night so good that afterward, things are much better between you and Dirk though nowhere near back to normal. Even after the next holiday, Christmas, things aren’t quite the same though that’s certainly not out of lack of effort on Dirk’s part. Quite the opposite really as he almost puts too much effort into the last holiday of the year.

Christmas comes around and you come running down the stairs in your pjs in excitement to see what special thing will come with this holiday when you notice Dirk isn’t in the room when you wake up only to stop in the doorway to the living room out of shock. The room has been completely transformed into a forest on Pandora from Avatar only with Christmas decorations hanging wherever possible as well. Dirk must’ve been planning this for who knows how long and there’s no way he made all of this himself even if he put up himself and even that would require him to have gone downstairs to start on almost as soon as you fell asleep. It amazed you down to your very core as you looked around the thing you had seen so many times on the TV and in your posters now in your living room. You were so enraptured that you didn’t even notice Dirk sitting there in the middle of the room with all the presents until he cleared his throat. Your eyes snap to him and you smile wide as he smiles back at you nervously. “Did you make this chap?” “Uh yeah, I did.” “It’s amazing!” He relaxes considerably and smiles a bit wider. “I’m glad you like it, man.” “Like it? I love it!” He chuckles at your amazement and it’s then that your grandmother chooses to walk in to check on you both, smiling as she sees your happiness and wonder before telling you both that breakfast is ready. It almost feels wrong to leave the lush forest that your living room has become but as Dirk leaves you find yourself following him with only one thought in your head.

Things are even better now than they were before.


	14. Hal's Device

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The project is finally ready for use

It’s done. It’s finally done. You didn’t realize how much work Ms. Harley had been putting in when you stopped working with her and now you deeply regret not continuing to help but holy shit it’s done. Hal’s device is finally operational. As many tests as possible have been run and all that’s left now is to take it to Hal and see him fly. He’s going to be so happy even if he still has to be careful not to tell anyone, especially humans, who he is and how weak he truly is. This is going to be amazing.

Jake must be able to sense your joy and excitement, either that or he’s just as excited as you anyway or both because he’s practically bouncing when you come up to him and tell him it’s done and ask if he wants to fly with you to give it to Hal. “Do I?! Of course I do chap!” His eyes sparkle and he’s grinning about as wide as he would if you admitted to liking Avatar which is never going to happen by the way. You can’t help but smile along with him and you’re really glad he agreed to come even if it is an extra risk flying there and back. Something about his presence just does wonders to calm you a lot of the time. You guess it might be his easy-going ignore all the risks and go for it personality but no matter what it is about him that calms you so easily and without any real effort on his part you like. Sure that same personality is what gets you stressed in the first place sometimes but still. You feel like he’s slowly wearing down on your always on guard personality and on one hand, you hate it because it makes you more vulnerable and risk-taking and open to harm but on the other hand you can tell it’s a much better state of mind for you to be in. Healthier and more stable and all that. At the very least you’ve felt better mentally and emotionally since moving in with Jake and his family after the bonding ceremony all that time ago.

You get the device from Ms. Harley and both of you do some final check overs to make sure everything is good to go before tying it to your back and then helping Jake on and covering both him and the device with Ms. Harley’s ever helpful blanket invention. You thank her profusely for all of her help but she just brushes it off with one simple statement that makes your heart soar for reasons you can’t really explain. “You’re family Dirk, of course, I helped you.” You just nod dumbly at her and she chuckles before sending you off on your merry way.

The trip to your old cave is uneventful and you get more time to be nostalgic now that you aren’t focused on that stupid dragon catching your eye or on nervousness about being caught. Or at least you aren’t as nervous about being caught. You, therefore, can’t help but think back to all your times flying these skies with your family. Especially the skies closer to the mountains. You would fly back forth from there and the woods hunting for food and practicing your skills with Bro and Dave. You still remember the first day Dave flew like it was yesterday.

Dave had been around four at the time and you were seven and had been flying for about three or four years at that point. Dave had tried to copy you and Bro many times, desperate to come with you when you went out to hunt and train instead of being left behind alone except for Hal who at the time was even saltier about not being able to leave the cave than he is now and because of it lashing out at people and throwing tantrums a lot. He had followed you and Bro out of the cave before Bro had told him to stay inside but Dave had refused and looked Bro dead in the face with a brave glare and a stubborn ‘No! I want to come with you!’. His voice had been so high and squeaky at the time that even now you have to fight back a chuckle at the thought of it. He had been adorable but he hated that sentiment. He wanted nothing more but to be tough and stone-faced like his older brothers. Bro was annoyed with him and you were hoping to keep your little brother from getting into trouble with your older brother when you told Dave that he could come with you when he could fly. He’d huffed and flapped his wings only to actually get off the ground. Both he, Bro, and you had been amazed at the accomplishment as he fell back down, so surprised he’d forgotten to continue flapping. Dave had cheered because that meant he got to come with you both, you got in trouble for promising him that later, and for a while, your training got put on hold to teach Dave to fly as well as to catch him up to your level in hunting skills and power control. Dave was a fast learner when it came to flying at the very least and before you knew it he could fly just as well as he could walk. 

It still touches your heart and makes you feel warm to think back on days like that where things were simple and happy. Sometimes you miss those days and other times you don’t. Right now you’re just happy you got to have such a great little brother to go along with your badass older brother and awesome twin.

You land on the mountain and head to the cave and go inside, getting a brief glance from Bro and nothing more. You’ve come here with Jake a couple of times for advice and suggestions from Hal since the first time you came so he’s more used to it by now. He’s not exactly warmed up to the idea of Jake coming here much less knowing about and seeing Hal but he’s allowing it and that’s about the most you dare to ask of him. Dave is wandering by just as you leave the main entryway and he stops as he sees you. “Dirk? What are you doing here?” He asks, tilting his head in confusion. Jake pops out from under the blanket to smile at Dave. “And Jake too? Is there some sort of party happening I wasn’t informed about?” You roll your eyes at Dave and shake your head as Jake chuckles and answers him. “Nope! My gran and Dirk here finally finished making Hal’s project!” Dave’s eyes widen and he looks to you in shock for confirmation. You smile at him and he smiles back. “Dude Hal’s going to be so happy to hear that.” “Damn right he is.” Dave chuckles at your response. “You better get going to show him then. Don’t want to keep the princess waiting.” He jokes and you roll your eyes again but smirk at the jab at Hal while Jake laughs before ducking back under the blanket. He wanted to make the fact that you had the device this time a surprise for Hal plus he wanted to do a dramatic reveal like in the movies. He’s such a dork sometimes. 

You head down to Hal’s room and at the doorway, you’re hit with more memories. This time it’s of the first scare you ever had of Hal dying. Beyond being physically weak Hal had a few poor immune system for his younger years of life. Once he reached his teens it’s gotten much better and he doesn’t get as sick as he used to, he just gets sick a bit more often than most dragons. Which for humans is about the average amount of times to get sick. But when Hal was younger he used to get really really sick on top of being sick more often. This wasn’t the last time he would get deadly sick but it was the first. You had just come back from a visit to the Lalondes when you were about two to find Hal nearly coughing up a lung in your bedroom. He looked terrible and so you quickly rushed to Bro in order to get Hal help, nearly crying despite yourself. This was your twin brother looking as sick as could be and too weak to even pick himself up off the ground. It had taken two weeks of intense care to get Hal even close to healthy again and you never left Hal’s side once despite that leading to you getting sick too. Not nearly as sick as he was but sick all the same. The two of you spent those two weeks curled around each other until finally Hal could move again if only for brief periods of time and wasn’t coughing near constantly. It had been scary seeing him like that but it made you feel proud of him for improving so much over the years despite his limitations and it made you so glad that you could be helping him along that next step now.

You step inside the room at the same time as Jake catches your slight stop and pokes out from under the blanket to find out why. Luckily you don’t end up having to tell him before Hal notices you two and walks over to you excitedly. He’s trying to hide his excitement at the device being done which you had told him about through Roxy without telling Jake because you knew he would be disappointed that he wouldn’t get to surprise Hal but you can see the slight spring in his step that indicates how excited about this and happy he is. Jake seemingly forgets all about your pause in order to do a dramatic reveal of Hal’s device.

The outward look of the thing is pretty simple. It looks like a simple leather harness that goes around his chest and body with holes where it attaches to his wings and legs. From there a lot of complicated things happen that give him extra strength and make moving a lot easier and less work so that he can have a lot longer stamina as well. All of this combined should be enough for him to be able to safely leave the cave and even fly. Hal takes the thing and slips it on with some help from you and Jake almost immediately and you have to say you don’t think you’ve ever seen him as happy as he is in that moment as you make sure all the measurements were right and nothing is hurting him. Everything is good to go and when you look up to his face he’s got this large grin on his face that reminds you so much of Dave when he managed to get a compliment from Bro that one time. He’s so happy and proud and it’s honestly heartwarming as fuck and adorable. Seeing your twin brother so overjoyed is such a wonderful feeling.

Bro insists that you wait until night time to leave the cave so that fewer people are around to see you but none of you really mind all that much. You because Hal seems happy regardless and Jake likely because the anticipation to the adventure just mounts more than and Hal just because he doesn’t care about when he gets to go out since he now can go out. Hal, while impatient about most things, has never been too impatient about letting things fall into place so that a plan that he’s worked on can be completed. As long as everyone has done their part and all that’s left is things they can’t control like time passing he’s fine to wait.

And so you all wait until finally the moon is high in the sky and Bro gives the ok to Hal leaving the cave as long as you guys stay close to him and that Jake stays with Hal to protect him if something goes wrong while you fly back to get help. Bro seems to wish that Dave would go too but unfortunately for him, your little brother is fast asleep in his room since he has a semi-normal sleep schedule most days. As for Jake, you know the only thing keeping him up is adrenaline so you really hope nothing goes wrong and you have to leave Hal’s side. Especially since you just noticed that Jake didn’t bring his pistols again out of habit. Shit. You hope that by some miracle that’s about 99% likely to not have happened that Bro missed that detail somehow and didn’t just assign Jake to caring for Hal if you need to leave to get Bro because he had no other choice.

You really don’t want your older brother hating the new family you’ve just started to get back to normal with again.

Either way, Bro gives you the go ahead and Jake hurriedly jumps on your back and points you forward as Hal walks to the cave entrance, still trying to act like he isn’t the most excited he’s ever been in his life. “Onward to adventure!” Jake exclaims and it makes you smile and chuckle which earns you a smile from Jake in turn. You’ve all decided that it’ll be too late for the blanket to make much difference in who can see Jake anyway just like Hal’s device so as long as you stay upwind from any dragons you might see you should be fine with him out in the open on your back. Jake is really excited because of that as well as getting to see Hal fly. You can’t really blame him. You’re pretty excited too.

You follow Hal out of the cave and catch him staring out into the night sky. You don’t remember how many times if at all Hal’s seen the night sky but he must remember knowing him and either way he seems fascinated by it. He’s staring up at the stars as they twinkle with wonder in his eyes and face and he just stands there for a moment admiring everything before finally attempting to take off from the ground. He flaps for a few seconds before getting some air and just like Dave the first time he flew he’s so amazed he ends up falling back down. “You ok chap?” Jake asks and Hal quickly nods. “Yeah, I just- I can’t believe we actually did it. Dirk, we finally fucking did it.” He’s smiling so wide and his eyes are sparkling with such joy that he looks like a child. It’s amazing and fuck you don’t think your heart could get warmer. “We sure did man. Now come on. Let’s see you fly.” He nods quickly and flaps again. This time he manages to stay in the sky and so you follow suit and take off into the air.

You don’t fly at night time often, most prey animals are more alert at night or are sleeping and even with a dragons ability to see in the dark it’s easier to miss things at night, but seeing the stars and the moon as if they were right next to you when you fly higher into the sky and even just seeing them closer in the clear sky when you fly lower is a sight you will never forget. Hal has some issues getting a hang of flying at first but he quickly gets a hang of it. He’s just as much of a fast learner as Dave if not even more so. It’s not long before he’s even doing tricks leading to Jake cheering for him and laughing. You know he would clap if he could risk taking his hands off your neck. Really this is such an amazing night that you don’t really want it to end. Seeing Hal so god damn happy as he flies for the first time in his life and leaves the cave for the first time since his birth is such a wonderful feeling for you. You know that as soon as he goes back to the cave he’s going to feel even more caged than he did before but for now, he’s free and you can’t imagine anything better for him.

Right now you can’t imagine anything better for anyone in your family.


	15. A Day With The Strilondes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the Striders and Lalondes come over for one big meet up.

Today is going to be an amazing day and you can’t wait. It took forever to convince Bro to allow it but Hal stayed over at your place last night and today the rest of the Striders and Lalondes are coming over so the whole family can have a day outside together. Probably in the forest to avoid Hal getting seen but still. Hal is especially excited since it’s only been a month since you got him that device so he can get around easier.

You wake excited and instantly rush to get dressed, so excited that you forget to be quiet as to not wake Dirk up so he raises his head slowly to look at you as you slide on your shirt and vest. “You seem excited for today.” You turn to him with a large smile on your face and reply. “Well of course I am chap! Aren’t you excited?” He chuckles. “Yeah I am too. Don’t forget your glasses Jake.” “Right! Thanks chum!” You grab your glasses from your bedside table and put them on, having nearly forgotten them in your rush to go downstairs.

Once downstairs you rush to the dining room to find that Hal is already awake, he had slept in Jade’s room last night for convenience's sake and is sitting there talking to your gran about how she made his device while she cooks. You know Dirk told him a lot of who it works but you figure it must be better to have questions answered by the actual maker too even if Dirk did help a whole heaping lot. You smile as Hal turns his head for a moment as you come in, Dirk trailing behind you. “Hello, chap! Hello grandma!” “Morning Jake.” Hal just simply nods to Dirk despite greeting you. “Good morning sweetie. Good morning Dirk. You both excited for today?” Your gran asks as she finishes up her cooking and sets the food down on the table. “Of course we are grandma! It’s not every day we get to see everyone together in one place!” You exclaim. Your gran chuckles and calls for your sister who rushes to the table with Bec happily running after her. She sits down, gets the same question from your gran and gives a similar answer, and then starts eating. This leads to Hal and Dirk smirking and even a chuckle from Dirk while you laugh a bit and your gran chuckles as well. Jade gives you all a confused look but brushes it off quickly and continues to eat.

After everyone is done cooking and dishes are put away you all go outside to wait for your guests to arrive. You don’t have to wait long either until Roxy is coming down from the sky. Rose isn’t with her yet so you figure she’ll be coming down with the other two later. For now she squeals and barely lands before she’s running over to Hal and engulfing him in a dragon style hug, heads wrapping around each other’s neck. “Hally! You’re here! It works!” He smiles gently and wraps his head around her neck in turn. “Yeah. It does. It really does. God Rox you have no idea how good it feels to be out of that damn cave.” She giggles and they stay like that for a long time before finally pulling away again. And even then you get the feeling they only pulled away because they heard the wing flaps of the rest of the guests arriving if Roxy’s squeal of excitement is anything to go off of.

They’ve, besides Rose, have seen Hal’s device before of course so they aren’t as excited about that as Roxy was but Dave and Rose are both still smiling at least. According to Dave there hasn’t been a single night he hasn’t heard Hal leave in the middle of the night to fly around. Roxy dashes over to her family and forces them into a three-way hug by using her tail to pull Dave and Rose together and wrap her head around both of them that way. They end up getting tangled and are unable to pull apart for a moment afterward leading to laughter from everyone but Bro. Even Dirk gives a snort of amusement. They do manage to separate however and Rose moves over to Hal in order to investigate the device. He’s wearing it of course and you can tell everyone is a bit uncomfortable, Hal not least of all, by her looking over him but she seems unfazed as she takes in the device. After she’s done she simply smiles and silently goes back to her sister before starting up a conversation with her. It leaves everyone more than a little weirded out but things settle pretty quickly once the brothers all start joking around with each other and playfully teasing each other.

Your eyes are drawn to the only dragon in the group you haven’t met yet, Ms. Lalonde. She’s pink like Roxy but she has black and purple markings all over her skin and especially on her face. You’ve never actually been told what kind of dragon she is but if you had to make a guess you’d have to say she’s probably a water one like Roxy. You could very well be wrong, however. She seems a lot like both her daughters, with the goofy teasing charm of Roxy but the hidden knowledge you can just sense of Rose. She sticks around Bro most of the time and almost seems to be acting like his mother, keeping track of him and almost seeming like someone to keep him under control in some way. She’s also teasing him a lot and quickly gets along with your grandmother when she goes over to join their conversation. You get the weird feeling they’re talking about all of you but you have no way of confirming that.

You just sit back and watch for a couple moments before deciding to jump into the conversation Hal, Dave, and Dirk are having. “Dude can you try to be more quiet when you leave at midnight to go flying? You sound like an elephant stomping through to get outside. I’m surprised the whole mountain doesn’t wake up. Like holy shit is that a meteor shower crashing down? Is it the end of world?” Hal rolls his eyes and both you and Dirk share a laugh as Dave smirks. “Dude it ain’t my fault that I’ve never had the chance to fly before.” “Nah but that don’t mean you should wake up the world with your stomping.” You cover your mouth in an attempt to muffle your laughter as the boys continue fighting playfully.

Eventually it’s time for lunch and so your grandma ducks inside for a moment before bringing out plenty of food for everyone. It takes several trips even as you and Jade go to join her because of how many dragons are here but eventually all the food is brought out and everyone starts to chow down. There’s Dirk’s favorites, fish and oranges, of course. Hal seems to like the dragon fruit, he claims the dragon fruit is purely ironic but you think he actually likes it too, along with steak and Dave seems to enjoy sausage, he gets teased by his entire family for that choice for reasons you don’t quite pick up on due to Strider and Lalonde subtext which you still haven’t quite decoded fully, and apples. Bro just seems to grab whatever is closest to him and doesn’t really care what it is. Ms. Lalonde, who at this point in much a similar way to Bro has insisted you call her Mom for whatever reason, seems to actually enjoy the few fruits that were brought out mostly for the humans over the meats. She seems fond of strawberries and grapes especially and her daughters keep exchanging looks whenever she enthuses about the grapes. It’s confusing and you don’t understand why so you brush it aside and quickly forget about it. Rose seems to have her own fondness for fruits though not as much as her mother by a long shot and she mostly eats pork and chicken. Roxy seems to like the grapes as well though not as much as her mother does and she eats the chicken as well. Bec is getting a good taste of everything as things fall to the ground from the large table your grandmother brought out to put everything on and he seems to be having a ball of a time jumping from place to place to grab everything.

Overall lunch is a great experience and before long everyone is full and has gone back to chatting again. The adults are off on their own again but this time Jade and Rose have paired up with you, Dirk, and Dave and Hal and Roxy have split off on their own.

Everyone just chit chats for a bit until Roxy suddenly announces that Hal needs to watch a movie since he’s never had the opportunity to do so before. Or well, he only saw the last parts of the one you were watching before he showed up last night with Dirk. Dave hasn’t seen many movies either and so he’s excited too though both him and Hal are being pretty subdued with their excitement and you don’t know how many movies Rose has seen but she’s smiling happily as well. The adults wave you off, saying that since the adult dragons can’t fit inside anyway they’ll just stay outside while the rest of you stuff yourselves inside. It’s a really tight fit but you manage to get everyone inside the house and then inside the living room as well. You and Jade take up opposite sides of the couch with Bec in the middle as usual and Dirk sits next to you though he has to push closer to you than usual and sometimes even put his head by your chest or lap if Dave, who sat next to him, shifts in certain ways. Hal and Roxy go to the other side of the room with Rose next to Jade and them next to them. Overall you end up having to move your gran’s chair and the table in front of the couch so the table is closer to the TV and the chair isn’t even in the room anymore and even then it’s still a tight fit. You suppose it’s good that everyone is family for the most part then. 

Picking a movie turns out to be another issue though as everyone has different ideas on what a good movie is. 

Jade wants either a nature documentary or something like Brave or Moana, a princess movie with a strong independent leading lady basically which you can certainly understand, you want an action adventure movie, Roxy wants a spy movie, Dave wants a comedy or, ironically he says, a superhero flick, Dirk says he doesn’t care much but you know he just doesn’t want to end up holding you all up even more, Hal doesn’t know what he wants since he’s never seen movies before but you get the vibe that he’d like one of those movies where everyone is morally grey or the villain ends up being the hero or something like that, and Rose wants a horror movie specifically a psychological horror movie. None of you can quite agree on what kind of movie is the best one for all of you to watch together. You end up debating and arguing for at least an hour before finally deciding on a Marvel movie of some kind since they have action and comedy as well as being a superhero movie and often times having at least some morally grey characters and depth to the characters. From there some more arguing happens over which Marvel movie to watch. Eventually, it comes down to Ant-Man, Spiderman Homecoming, Avengers, or Iron-Man. Originally squeals had been pitched as well but they had been shot down since all of the dragons except for Dirk had never even seen the first movies. It was also for this reason that Iron-Man was settled upon since it was really the movie to kick off the franchise. 

With a movie finally picked out and taken from your collection to be put into the TV and started all that was left was sitting back and enjoying the movie together. The experience was pretty fun and the commentary from everyone, especially Hal and Dave, was amazing. Every detail got nitpicked whether by Dirk, Dave, Hal, or Rose depending on what it was being nitpicked but everyone laughed at the jokes and most of the room cheered during action sequences, only Hal, Dirk, and Rose staying silent though they were smiling throughout. Every once and a while Dave would notice how into he was getting and try to hold back but it would quickly fade as he got sucked back into the movie. By the time it was over everyone was super hyped up and energized and conversations about the movie exploded around the room. Hal was talking to Dirk about the technology used to create the effects and things like that while Dave and Jade talked about the jokes and some of the action scenes. Rose started talking to Rose about some deep psychological stuff that you didn’t really understand and Roxy seemed to not fully comprehend but was listening to her sister about and interested in nonetheless. You just watched the room for a few moments before joining in on your sister and Dave’s conversation which eventually shifted over to theories about things that they came up with which Dirk and Hal quickly joined in with as well and Rose and Roxy until everyone had come together to theorize and talk about scenarios. A wide range of things were talked about from mundane things to theories about the overarching universe to things about the next movies that you and Jade had to be quiet about in order to not spoil things and it was a lot of fun to just talk about this stuff with everyone.

You guys talked for so long that you actually were surprised when your grandma poked her head in to say she was bringing dinner out and that she would appreciate some help. You hadn’t realized just how long you all had been sitting there talking to each other for. You were actually pretty disappointed that it was dinner because you knew that not long after dinner everyone would have to start heading back home again. You would miss the time you had spent bonding with everyone today. But all good things must come to an end you suppose. Besides you still, have dinner! That will still be plenty of time to talk to people. Maybe you’ll even get to talk to the adults a bit.

With these thoughts you smile and get up, navigating around all the dragons as they stand as well, and go to help your grandmother get ready, prepared to continue having a great night.


	16. That Time Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for another bonding ceremony.

You can’t believe you’ve been living with Jake for three years now but here you are. Things have fully recovered and even progressed past what happened when you separated yourself from Jake and you still haven’t heard from that dragon for whatever reason so you barely think about him anymore. But now you’ve been with Jake and his family for three years and it’s time for another dragon bonding ceremony. And not just any dragon bonding ceremony either. Dave and Rose are both participating in this year's ceremony. Jade too but that’s more for Jake to be excited about.

You are probably both more nervous and excited than any of them are.

You don’t sleep the night before which you’ve been getting better about but you still aren’t perfect with it. When Jake wakes up though he’s got so much energy you would’ve sworn he hadn’t slept either. He jumps straight out of bed and goes to put on some clothes while you pretend to have only just woken up. “Excited?” You tease with a small smirk, trying to act sleepy. “Well of course! Do you not remember what day it is chap?” “Of course I know what day it is Jake. Not like I haven’t been both dreading and anticipating this day for a long time.” He chuckles at you and you remind him to grab his glasses before standing to head downstairs.

Once you get down you see that Jade is practically bouncing in her seat as she waits for you and Jake to get downstairs so that Ms. Harley will serve up breakfast. As soon as you both take your seats and the food is served she scarfs it down, thanks Ms. Harley, and then runs off to go meet the ambassador. You know Jake doesn’t keep track of details like this but you remember that the ambassador is some guy named Mr. Vantas with his rare yellow air dragon Mr. Captor.

Ms. Harley chuckles at Jade’s rush and teases Jake about how familiar it is. “Gran!” Jake whines leading to you chuckling along with his grandmother. “I can’t help it, Jake. You both just get so excited about these things.” She reaches over to pinch his cheek and he gently slaps at her hand and pouts, leading to more chuckles from both you and Ms. Harley. “Damn if that’s how you acted before our ceremony I almost wish I could’ve been here to see it.” He starts blushing red in embarrassment and you chuckle again as his grandmother gives a smirk. “Why don’t you boys help me clean up before we go.” You nod and careful help dry things with very controlled fire breath after Jake washes it before Ms. Harley puts it away before it’s time to head out for the ceremony.

The first thing you notice when you get there is that it’s a much different experience being in the viewing crowd with all the humans and bonded dragons than it is standing and waiting to be bonded. Everyone is much more crowded and there’s a lot less space to come by. People are shifting and bumping into one another constantly and with each little hit, you feel more and more self-conscious about just how much room you in yourself are taking up. You’re big for your dragon type and age and it’s becoming more and more painfully obvious just how true that is with each person that hits you accidentally. You kind of just want to shrivel up into a tiny box or even better yet just stop existing so that people can see around you and don’t keep bumping into you. You’re trying to keep your head as low as possible along with your wings while keeping them and your tail pulled in close so people can see over you and get as much room as possible but even so you feel like you’re in everyone’s way and you hate it.

Luckily Jake distracts you at least momentarily by turning to you and asking a simple question. “Chap I think it might be easier for everyone if I climbed onto your back so could you help me up?” It’s not really the idea itself or even the question that distracts you but more that he’s asking it at all. Jake has been really getting the hang of climbing up onto you by himself without hurting you or falling off and hurting himself so it confuses you why he would ask for help rather than just climbing right on up. He could just be doing it as a way of asking permission from you to do so but Jake is a very headstrong and forgetful person and you know that in most circumstances he would forget to ask permission of most people before touching them or doing things like that. He tends not to think ahead very much or even think of those details at all really. It sends you through a bit of a loop trying to figure out what Jake asking you for help getting on your back means even as outwardly you nod and help him up onto your back near your neck without any hesitation or even a word spoken. He thanks you of course and you nod back, still silently trying to work out what he had meant. 

Unfortunately, or probably more fortunately for your sanity at least, you don’t get to think on it for too long before the ceremony begins. You distract yourself with everyone who goes up to get paired off watching person after person go. 

You recognize Tavros from the times Jake has taken you back to that restaurant he likes so much. He ends up getting paired with a dragon from a fairly well-known dragon family you try to keep your distance from for the most part. Well, you do that with most dragons but even more so them. They give you weird vibes. This one you know is the youngest member of the family and if you remember correctly he was a rock dragon despite being mainly purple with just a few dark grey streaks here and there along his back. Just another oddity of that family. You suppose an earth dragon will pair decently with Tavros though. You can’t help but notice that Mr. Vantas’s youngest son gets paired Mr. Captor’s son. That didn’t happen last time they had a pair of kids get paired up the same year so you suppose it’s just a coincidence. All the same Mr. Vantas seems pretty happy with it and the kids seem ok with it too. The dragon kid is yellow just like the rest of the family and you can’t help but be boggled by the odds of that. You guess you really shouldn’t knowing the Lalonde’s relationship with their colors and the rarity of those colors but still. 

The last ones to go up before Jade are two that are familiar. Or well, the face of the dragon and the name of the human are familiar at least. It’s the dragon you saw in the forest with Jake that one time you went after that stupid grey dragon when Bro and Dave were over years ago. God, it sends shivers down your spine seeing them even if as far as you know it was just a just a coincidence he was there. You find out his name is Equius when he gets called up to pair with Nepeta and they both seem overjoyed at the pairing. Now that you can see him better you can tell he’s from the same family as the dragon you sometimes, very rarely but sometimes, see with Rufioh. He’s probably a water dragon then and if you had to guess he’s probably a liquid one too just based on what you’ve seen of him. You honestly hope you don’t have to see more of him just because it’ll stop you from thinking about that other dragon even more.

Finally it’s Jade’s turn. Dave nor Rose have been called up yet and you can see behind Jade is John, Jane’s little brother. You had completely forgotten he was the same age as the others. You don’t see him all that often but Dave talks about coming to visit Roxy and talking to him a lot so you figure he must be a pretty decent kid. Anyway, Jade almost can’t stay still as she waits for her dragon to be called out. 

“Aradia Megido!” 

As the name is called out a dark red dragon steps on stage. She’s female from what you can tell from down here and she appears to be either a fire dragon or a slightly reddish toned earth dragon. She has an almost bleak looking expression on her face as she goes to meet Jade but just as Jake was unfazed but your stoicness when you first met Jade is unfazed by Aradia’s expression. All the same, you can’t help but frown. Why is she frowning? Is she not happy with her assignment? Why wouldn’t she be? She hasn’t met Jade before. That would mean she would’ve had to come down from the mountains before. Then why isn’t she smiling at least politely? You’ll have to talk to her later. For now, it’s just a waiting game until your brother and sister get called up.

Luckily you don’t have to wait too long before Dave gets called up. In fact, he gets called up right away after Jade. He gets called up to pair with John. They both seem pretty happy with that, John raising his fist and Dave hitting it gently with a curled foot. It’s a really big coincidence they got paired together but you figure it’s a good thing so you won’t think on it too hard. They’re happy with the results and you know they won’t do anything bad to one another so it’s fine even if it is a bit strange.

You have to wait a bit longer for Rose to get called up but when she does she gets called up for a human you don’t recognize. At least not fully. The human is a bit tall by the standards you’ve observed and she’s wearing a very fancy dress with quite a bit of makeup on. However, she looks elegant rather than like your average teenage drama queen. You’d almost mistake her for a queen if she was older. Her name is Kanaya Maryam by what Mr. Vantas calls her forward with before calling out for Rose to be paired with her and you think you vaguely recognize her from a clothing stand in the market. She must be the daughter of whoever runs it. Either that or she runs it herself and looking at her you don’t doubt she could. She seems very mature and polite. You wonder for a moment if she made her dress herself before coming to the conclusion that if she is the girl from the clothing stand than she must’ve. It’s very impressive if she did. You have the feeling she will more than a good match for Rose.

You sit and wait through the rest of the ceremony until finally it’s time to head back home.

Dave and Rose follow their respective pairings, Roxy and Jane quickly hurry off towards Dave and John and Rose follows after Kanaya as she heads for her house. Jade hurries towards the house with Aradia and she’s so excited and full of energy that she actually manages to beat the rest of you there. By the time you all get there, she’s giving Aradia the full tour. Ms. Harley simply chuckles and tells you she’s going to go make lunch before letting you two go. You end up waiting for Jade to finish the tour and come back downstairs as you chat with Jake about the developments of the day.

“It’s might exciting don’t you think chap? I can’t believe John got paired with your brother!” You nod in agreement before speaking. “Yeah. Seeing that was pretty weird but cool. They’ll get along great though and they even have a headstart on most of the others.” “Yep! And that’s all thanks to us!” You chuckle. “Dude if anything it’s thanks to Roxy. She’s the whole reason Dave even knows John in the first place.” Jake waves a hand. “Pish posh. I say that it’s us.” You roll your eyes and chuckle again at him and he chuckles with you. 

You continue chatting with Jake for a while until Jade comes down again with Aradia behind her. Aradia still isn’t smiling even the slightest bit and it’s almost starting to get creepy. Jade still seems unfazed. Maybe Jake has been a bit of a bad influence on her with his reaction to your stoic attitude. That would be your fault if it’s true. You hope it’s not. Jade’s a smart girl so she must know something's not right at least right?

“Jake you should give me some pointers on things before lunch!” There it is. She’s going to try and get advice from her older brother. At least you hope that’s what she’s doing. Or do you. Would Jake give good advice about this? You aren’t sure. You hope she’ll come to you or her grandmother if he doesn’t or eventually she will if that’s not why she’s pulling him out of the room now by the sleeve. Either way, she’s gone now which gives you the perfect opportunity to interview Aradia about her behavior.

“So... What’s with the frown?” Wow. Great start there dumbass. Ugh. You hate yourself sometimes. “All of this doesn’t matter. It’s all random and it doesn’t make a difference in the grand scheme of things.” Well hello there thoughts you have late at night when you get especially depressed. Aren’t you cheerful. “Woah. Dial back the doom and gloom there. Look. Jade is pretty much as much of my sister as she can get at this point so you better not make her depressed or some shit you got it? She doesn’t need that.” Aradia doesn’t really react and you have to hold back from shivering and quickly retreat to go find Jake.

Luckily lunch starts soon and after that, you’re able to go with Jake on a trip into the woods in order to distract yourself from Aradia. You really hope that she doesn’t get to Jade. Maybe Jade will do her some good. Cheer her up like Jake did for you. God, you hope so. Or else living with her is going to be a fucking nightmare.


	17. The Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dragon is back.

Aradia has been living with you guys for about a month now and she’s a decent gal. She has a slight taste for the outdoors and adventure and she claims to have at least at one point been a fan of Indiana Jones and she does have the knowledge to back up that claim. She’s not the most expressive or cheerful person, quite depressive really, but neither was Dirk at first so you’re giving her some time. You’ve given the same advice to Jade and you can tell she’s trying her best even if she is getting frustrated quite a bit. Your sister is very expressive and generally pretty cheerful after all so having someone who is pretty much the opposite around all the time gets on her nerves quite a bit. She’s still trying her best to be friendly and kind though and for that, you give her major props.

Mostly Jade’s been bringing her out into the woods along with Bec so you don’t see her often. You don’t mind much though, you’ve got Dirk to spend time with after all. You two are closer than ever now and you’re pretty happy with that and proud of how well you both bounced back from your little separation. 

One day you’re out exploring in the forest with Dirk when suddenly he goes still and his eyes widen in fear. You tilt your head and look up at him in confusion. “Is something wrong chap?” He shoots you a silent look to be quiet and though you’re confused as all hell you obey. He looks around before gesturing with his head for you to climb up one of the nearby trees. You’re even more confused by this but once again you wordlessly go along with it and climb up into the tree as quietly as you can before sitting on a branch that you’ve made sure can support your weight and pushing aside as many leaves as you can to look down at Dirk. If he were to go to his top height he’d be about level with where you are now so it’s not too hard to see him through the leaves but there are still patches that are covered up with green. Because of this, it’s hard to see what’s going on when a voice that sounds like it’s coming from in front of Dirk speaks.

“You haven’t played the game yet.” The voice sounds gravelly but high pitched and almost childish. They almost seem to be whining a bit. “No. I haven’t. And I’m not going to either.” Dirk’s voice sounds as serious as can be and it makes you frown a bit. If he’s sounding that serious then obviously he’s met this person before and doesn’t like them at the very least and at the most is somehow scared of them. You doubt that though. After all, Dirk is the bravest person you know by a long shot, including your grandmother. He’s not scared of anything. So why would he be scared of whoever this random person you can’t even see is? Still, it worries you a little bit.

You try to push away some of the leaves to get a better look as you hear the person growl, proving that they are a dragon just as you get a good enough look at them to further confirm that. What catches your attention though is that you’ve never seen or heard of any dragon like them before. Dark grey scales and from you can make out bright red eyes like nothing you’ve ever seen before. The eyes pop and really stand out against his scales and he definitely gives off that classic movie villain vibe. Just look at him! He’s definitely a bad guy.

You lean to the side to try and get a better look at him around the leaves only to go too far and slide right off the branch and fall down towards the ground. Luckily Dirk is incredibly fast and manages to catch you in his mouth by the back of your shirt. It still jostles you a lot and leaves you a little dizzy and disoriented. It also leaves you with a few smalls cuts and scratches from branches you brushed as you fell down but nothing is hurting or bleeding bad enough to need immediate attention in your book.

The other dragon looks surprised and pissed at your sudden appearance which is a little weird considering you know from Dirk that dragons have a great sense of smell but maybe this guy wasn’t paying attention or is super cocky and didn't bother to smell for other people. Either option fits the evil villain mold pretty well. Dirk quickly puts you down and uses a wing to block you from getting attacked by the other dragon but that also makes it hard to see what’s going on once again. This is really starting to get annoying. You just want to see what’s happening! 

“What is he doing here?” “Dude Jake is my bonded partner. We were out together when you showed up. It’s not like we planned this meeting and I betrayed you by bringing him.” You can tell Dirk is trying to mask his annoyance from experience with him talking to Bro and Hal but the other dragon doesn’t seem to know this or just doesn’t care but you doubt the second option is the true one based on what you know about this dragon so far and on villains in movies. He growls at Dirk and snaps his jaws aggressively, the loud snap makes you jump just a bit since you can’t see it coming, but Dirk stands his ground. “Back off whoever the fuck you are.” “Caliborn. I’m Caliborn.” He says the name like it’s supposed to strike fear into you and Dirk but you don’t recognize it at all so it doesn’t do much at all. Just gives a name to a face and voice. Caliborn has his body raised from what you can see, trying to make himself look big and powerful you suppose but Dirk is unfazed as far as you can tell.

“Yeah ok whatever. What the fuck do you want? What are you doing so close to our house?” That actually is a really good question. You’re glad Dirk asked it. “I couldn’t help but notice you hadn’t even attempted the game yet so I figured I needed to come to make a little warning.” His words sound menacing and violent in nature and Dirk growls and tries to make himself look bigger as well, his other wing rising while the one in front of you stays put as his tail raises as well. “You stay away from my family you disgusting creature.” He laughs but you can’t help but look to Dirk in shock. Clearly, this guy knew him and attempted to play a game or something with him and the consequences for not playing were something bad being done to his family which meant your family as well. You can’t believe Dirk would hide this from you and now knowing that your family is in danger… Well you can’t stand for whatever this Caliborn guy is planning.

You move to stand beside Dirk’s wing and speak before Dirk can speak or move to cover you again. “Don’t you dare lay a finger on anyone’s family feind!” You stand with one hand on your hip and the other pointing a finger at him in the most heroic pose you can think of with your face one of solid determination. Caliborn takes one look at you and breaks out in cocky laughter. Even Dirk cringes and you can’t help but deflate a little even as you try and hold your ground and stance. Caliborn doesn’t scare you if he doesn’t scare Dirk after all. Because if he doesn’t scare Dirk than that means Dirk can take him and if Dirk can take him then he’s not a threat and you have no reason to fear him either.

“If you try and hurt our families than you’re in for a world of hurt yourself!” Caliborn just laughs more and sneers at you. “And just what does a puny worthless thing like you think it can do against me?” That is… Actually a good question. You barely ever bring your guns places with you when you go out with Dirk anymore in case you go for a fly together and because you trust him to keep you safe if needed and you aren’t even sure if bullets perce dragon scales anyway. So what can you do to Caliborn if he were to try to hurt your family or you? Not much really. Caliborn must be able to tell what your silence and new frown means because he laughs again and turns to Dirk. “I suggest you get going on your little game. Especially with a Medigo around.” With that, he turns, nearly hitting Dirk in the face with his tail, and leaves.

What did he mean especially now that there’s a Medigo around? What does Aradia have to do with him? Is she like his spy or something? That would make for a good plot twist if she was. But that would raise the question of how he got his spy paired into your family. The ambassador is a good guy so you sincerely doubt he’s partnered up with this obvious villain. Though that would be another awesome plot twist if he was... You really hope that’s not the case though. You want to believe that Jade and Aradia can form a good bond even if things aren’t working out all that great at the moment. You hope that Aradia is a good person deep down inside. You want your sister to be happy and be able to have a healthy and happy dragon partnership and you really hope that she can have that.

Dirk seems really lost in his own head and you can’t help but come back to one question as you look up at him. What game was Caliborn talking about all that time?

“Dirk, chap, if you don’t mind me asking, what was that fiend talking about when he said game? Where have you met him before?” Dirk cringes and looks away from you. “It’s… It’s a long story...” Something tells you the story isn’t long as much as he just doesn’t want to tell it for one reason or another. You frown deeper. “Well, we have a while until we have to be home for dinner. Why don’t you tell me?” You urge. You want to know and you want to help Dirk. He had promised you he would let you help with this kind of stuff now. So why doesn’t he want to tell you about how he met Caliborn and what Caliborn was talking about?

Dirk hesitates for a long time as you look at him with sad and pleading eyes before he gives in and sighs. “Fine.” You perk up almost instantly, glad that he’s going to let you help him. He then tells you all about seeing him when you had sleepwalked and going outside to see him the second time and the brief conversation they’d had and how Caliborn had told him to kill his sister for him or face him hurting his family. You wish Dirk would have told you about this sooner. It makes so much more sense why he separated himself from you now. You had never really asked but now it made so much sense and you feel so bad for Dirk. No wonder he was so stressed. You can’t imagine the tension between you two helping at all either… You wrap him up in a tight hug without warning and he’s obviously shocked for a moment before hugging you back. He puts his foot on your back and snout in your hair and at this point, you guys still don’t hug a lot, Dirk’s still not huge on showing affection, but you’ve done it enough that the position is familiar and safe feeling now. Sitting here with Dirk and just holding one another is something very clearly and deeply right and enjoyable. His solid scaled underbelly and chest area pressed against your body with his scaled snout pressed gently into your hair and his claws very gently poking at your clothing. Knowing that if he so pleased from this position he could tear you apart in ten million different ways but trusting and knowing that he won’t do that because he cares about you and because you care about him is such a wonderful feeling to have. Most dragons aren’t huge on physical affection, or even verbal affection in some cases, due to the submission and vulnerability it shows and implies with a few rare exceptions such as the Lalondes so to hug Dirk like this is something special to you both even if he’s not really the one who's vulnerable in this case. It’s something his primal urges tell him is wrong and something that for you is potentially very dangerous and that you show a lot of trust in him for doing. Both of you have reasons never to hug the other so to come together and embrace is something deeply special and connecting for the both of you.

You hug for a while before pulling away and even when you do separate again neither of you say a thing or move for a while. You just sit and look at each other for a long time before finally silently turning to head home together. Most would say the silence was awkward and sure there was the urge to fill the emptiness with words but at the same time there was nothing to be said and there wasn’t anything words could do to make this moment any more binding for the two of you. If anything speaking would break apart some of that binding. So instead you let it be and walk home in silence.

When you get back Dirk finally speaks again and even then it’s just a simple question of what you want to do now to which you reply with a smile and one word. “Avatar.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter chapter this time sorry. School is starting soon and it's kicking my ass and cutting into my writing time a lot as well as killing my creative juices. Sorry again. I hope you all still enjoy this chapter.


	18. Meet The Crew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake has a new goal and Dirk isn't so sure he likes it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helios updating Fire and Forest? It's more likely than you think! It's finally back! I'm so sorry it took so long but to make up for it I have two chapters lined up for you to release in the next two days and this one is extra long as well! However after that updates will become slower than they used to be because of extra work and things that have piled up on me. Updates will be inconsistent but I still hope to update relatively often. Now enough of my nonsense, let's get on to the chapter already!

It’s been about three months since Aradia joined you now and she’s just as gloomy as ever but Jade is still just as determined to make it work too. You really don’t know how Jade does it, to be honest. But she does so you leave them be mostly.

Mostly your schedule has returned to normal but recently Jake has been wanting to spend more time with his friends as well as make more friends. He’s always been very outgoing and friendly but making friends has never really been an explicit goal of his. It’s really just been a side effect of his personality. Now, however, he’s been wanting to spend more time with others as he’s found that he’s explored most of the forest around his home already so his next new adventure is making new friends and learning more about his old ones. You like that he’s so outgoing and all of that but you are not a group person or really even a people person to be honest and this kind of adventure isn’t your style. You don’t complain though because you want Jake to be happy and you don’t want to hold him back with your lack of social interest. This leads to you being dragged along with him for most of his little friend making adventures. 

The first adventure he decides to go on is seeing Rufioh during one of the rare days he has off work due to his father being home. It’s the first time you get to formally met his dragon too. You’ve seen him around briefly but never for a long time and not that often either. You’ve been told it’s because his family is a bit more tight-knit than yours and busy doing things together a lot so he spends time running errands for the restaurant as well as doing things with his family a lot. No matter if that’s the truth or not you don’t get to see him often. 

Anyway, Jake leads you back behind the restaurant to meet up with them. You get back there and see that not only is Rufioh there with Horuss but Tavros is there with his dragon as well and Horuss is talking to Equius. You hadn’t expected them to be here but you suppose you can’t do anything about it. At least Equius didn’t bring along his human as well. Wait. No. There she is. She was just hidden behind his neck. She’s on his back. Huh. You thought only you and Jake did that. You wonder if they fly too or if she just likes climbing on him. She seems like the type of person who would enjoy climbing things but she also seems like she’d be more than willing to take the risk of flying. Too bad there’s no way you’re going to ask about that kind of stuff. That might lead to you having to explain why you asked and you might have to give up that you’ve flown with Jake and he might blurt out without thinking about where you’ve flown with him because he doesn’t think before he speaks sometimes and you can’t risk that. Nepeta is fairly small so she might not be able to reach fully around Equius’s neck which would be dangerous. She’s very brave and risk-taking though so who knows.

Jake smiles as the two of you walk up to the group and waves to them all. “Hello chums!” He calls out. You simply walk silently beside him but if anyone takes offense to your lack of greeting they don’t say so. Rufioh of course waves back and Nepeta jumps off of Equius’s back in order to do the same. “Jake! Bangarang!” Jake chuckles and goes straight to chatting away with Rufioh and catching up with him. Nepeta on the other hand comes up to you, Equius at her side while Horuss joins Rufioh. “Hey! Rufioh said that Jake said that you made things like Equius does!” Equius seems embarrassed by her words, tilting his head down. You shrug. “I make like, statues and stuff mostly. I’ve been working on figuring out joints.” It’s hard to make things when your fingers are huge and end in sharp claws. At least you don’t have to worry about burning yourself when you heat up the metal as long as you're careful. “I see. Maybe I could assist you sometime?” It doesn’t seem like he’s told her about you both seeing each other before but he definitely seems nervous and submissive towards you for more than just your age. “Maybe.” You say in return, not giving any sign of emotion to them. You don’t really trust Equius for one and for two you’re just not comfortable with sharing emotions with strangers. He nods, accepting that and noses Nepeta with his snout gently. She instantly seems to understand what this means and gives him a look that’s both stern and comforting somehow. They certainly seem close especially for how short of a time they should’ve known each other. You mean, you know they knew each other before that but for how long could they have possibly known each other? Surely not that long.

Either way Equius seems to accept whatever verdict Nepeta has given him and he looks at you again. There’s awkward silence for a bit as you sit there before you decide that it’s better you release the info now rather than waiting for Nepeta to find out herself. However you disguise it as if you expected her to know, therefore angling her anger at him and not you if she does get mad. “You ever find her the other night?” He glances down at his bonded partner nervously as she gives him a confused look but he does nod slowly. “Good to hear. Stay away from our place next time though ok? I would’ve mistaken you for my brother if it weren’t for how badly you were hiding your scent.” Strangely enough Nepeta almost seems more frustrated with your last statement than your middle one. Equius is getting more nervous by the second and you swear that if it was possible he would be sweating. A lot. Mostly because instead he’s got a good amount of humidity building in the air around him thanks to the water vapor water dragons give off into the air the same way humans would sweat and fire dragons extra heat. Nepeta scrunches her nose as the humidity rises so it seems she is also aware of the similarities. 

“Equius? What is he talking about?” Her tone is curious if slightly hurt at not being privy to the encounter between you and Equius and there seems to be just the tiniest bit of anger in her voice as well. Equius stutters nervously for a few moments before gesturing with his head for them to go talk out of your ear range. She crosses her arms and argues with him for a moment but they do end up leaving you alone again. Not that you mind. If anything you’re glad not to have to make small talk with strangers. Though that’s not to say you know Rufioh or Horuss all that well either.

You turn back to the others in the group and find that Horuss seems a little awkward. Jake and Rufioh are so caught up in themselves that they don’t even notice him not talking at all. He’s smiling but you can tell it’s not genuine. You kinda feel bad for him. You know that when Jake and Rufioh get to talking it’s hard to get a word in edgewise just because of who they both are and that can be weird and awkward even if you don’t like talking all that much anyway. And Jake is so oblivious that he doesn’t notice anything is wrong and Rufioh will see it but not want to confront it and so he will just ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist at all. You decide that you feel bad enough for Horuss that you should bail him out.

This leads you to poke Jake gently and discretely with your tail to get his attention while Rufioh is talking. He continues to listen to Rufioh but shoots you a confused side eye and you glance to Horuss, trying to get him to understand with just looks. It seems that once again you’ve forgotten just how oblivious and dumb Jake can be sometimes when it comes to things that are wrong especially in social situations. He glances at Horuss but doesn’t pick up on the same subtle clues you do and just looks back to you again, still confused. You almost want to sigh but you keep it in for Horuss’s sake. No need to embarrass him or make him feel the need to lie about how he feels. Horuss has picked up on your attempts even while Rufioh has not and he’s giving you a pitiful look, trying to silently tell you you don’t need to do anything. It churns your stomach how much this guy is willing to put himself through for no reason. Him and his brother both are fucking cowards you’ve quickly realized and all they want is for things to stay as they are which is disgusting in this case. You can understand wanting stability, you want that too awhile hell of a lot, but come on man. Have some fucking self-respect sometimes. God. Listen to you. All justicey and hypocritical as fuck. Whatever.

You make a small gesture with your tail, very subtly pointing it towards Horuss and then your mouth. Jake still seems confused for a couple moments more before finally catching on. God damn that took longer than it should have by any reasonable measure. Jake is such an airhead sometimes. “Horuss I hear you are acquainted with a lot of people!” Oh no. Jake no. No Jake come on set aside the making friends quest man you don’t want an even larger group of people around. Too late. Fuck. “Well I am acquainted with them yes. I wouldn’t say I’m especially close to many of them though.” Horuss man I did you a solid please tell me you’re repaying it. “However, I’d be happy to introduce them to you if you would like.” God damn it you had one job. Both Jake and Horuss had one collective job. And yet they’d failed. Fuck. It’s partly your fault too for trying to include Horuss and you know that but still. Come on. 

Of course, as any moron could’ve predicted, Jake lights up with a bright smile and sparkles bloom in his eyes. “Really chap? That would be wonderful!” The happy expression almost makes it worth it. Almost. It doesn’t though and you’re greatly regretting being polite and putting someone else first. Knowing you you’ll do it again sometime even still and fuck things up for yourself then too. So is your curse as a Strider. Especially one whose name is Dirk.

Horuss, Rufioh, and Jake all quickly start chattering away about who all they all know and what schedules might be as they try to determine a single day where everyone would be free to meet up. Oh boy. You are not looking forward to that one little bit.

Eventually they decide there is no one day, you’ve never felt so relieved, and instead start finding days where the schedules of certain groups of people are all available. Before long Nepeta and Equius, seeming closer than ever somehow, return from their little conversation off to the side and join in with the planning with their own group of friends. There’s a whole lot of them. You almost forgot that humans are incredibly social even when dragons will oftentimes spend all their time alone with they don’t bond with a human. After this, you don’t think you’ll ever make that mistake again.

You aren’t able to keep up with all of the details, the conversation, particularly on the human end of things, is going way too fast for that but you do manage to gather most of the names of the people and some of their interests and hints of personality. You obviously already know all of Jake’s friend group which is surprisingly small for him but you guess it makes sense with how much time he spends watching movies alone or out exploring alone. There’s Jane, Roxy, and you along with Rufioh and Tavros. He does say that thanks to Jade gushing about her friends so much he thinks he’d get along with them as well but he never wants to intrude when she’s hanging out with her buddies so he’s never really had the chance to talk to them. It surprises you a lot when you find out that Jake actually has the smallest friend group in the group. Well, Horuss makes it clear several times that most of the people he knows aren’t really close to him and you can tell that it’s the same boat for Rufioh but all the same they have a larger group than Jake does by quite a bit.

There’s the lava dragon Damara who is apparently quite rude to her ‘buddies’ and often will speak in a language only her family understands for whatever reason. Both Rufioh and Horuss seem to have very conflicted feelings about her. Damara’s bonded partner is named Latula and somehow they get along decently though they definitely have their spats, god you’re adapting Jake’s language, and she apparently enjoys anything ‘radical’. Weird but you’ve heard weirder. Latula is really close with a dragon named Mituna who had gotten brain damage a while back somehow which greatly lowered his intelligence and overall mental state so that he acted like a child who had a dictionary of nothing but swear words. You kinda feel bad for the guy. If it weren’t for the attitude described you would think him and Hal could’ve been friends. Along with essentially ruining his brain forever the incident apparently lowered his previously very strong gust status to barely enough control over the air to be considered a flying dragon. Bonded with Mituna was Cronus who was supposedly a horny douche of a guy who never stopped flirting with everyone he came across and tried to act like his target was the only thing that mattered into the world until he was rejected which at that point he became a whiny insulting dick. He also apparently abused the fuck out of Mituna, pissed that his brain damage made him so weak and mentally all over the place which made their bond much harder to maintain. You can understand being mad that your bond is almost impossible because of something out of your control but abusing your bonded partner over it? That’s a whole new level of fucked up you didn’t think was possible. You couldn’t imagine ever hurting Jake even if keeping a stable bond with him was impossible. Another person who was close to Mituna and often defended him against Cronus, one of the only people who did for some reason, was Kurloz who was an animal dragon. On top of that, his powers were apparently stronger than most to the point where he could somehow control sentient and intelligent beings such as humans and dragons. That was extremely hard to do and you had to be really powerful to be able to do it. Honestly, the way they described Kurloz kinda creeped you out. The guy never spoke and no knew if he even could including his bonded partner and Nepeta’s sister Meulin. Nepeta was able to help describe Meulin and you learned that she spent a lot of her time alone with Kurloz and that she was generally extremely cheerful and bouncy. She said that like herself Meulin was a shipper though Meulin took a more active role in her shipping and actually tried to set up people. Meulin was also apparently deaf which Nepeta theorized was the reason she and Kurloz were so attached to each other. Meulin was a good lip reader but it was always easier not to have to worry about reading lips and on top of Kurloz knowing sign language along with Meulin they had this sort of connection as Nepeta described it where they didn’t even need to sign to each other to understand each other a lot of the time. It creeped you out because it was most likely that Kurloz was using her powers on her to do that which who knows what else he’s doing if he’s doing that but you suppose as long as no one is hurt then it’s fine. Beyond all of them, there was also Arenea, a flying dragon, who had a deep belief in equality to the point of nearly turning it into a religion of sorts. That struck you as really really weird and kinda crazy but Rufioh and Horuss seemed to just gloss over it as if mentioning that she liked one food over another. She also was apparently very talkative and enjoyed informing people on things in oftentimes one sided conversations to the point of paying people to listen to her talk sometimes. She seemed to have this and her belief in equality in common with her bonded partner, Kankri. Apparently, her near religious belief in equality had actually been sparked by him even if he didn’t follow it to quite that degree. However, he was always more than willing to ‘discuss’ things of a very social justice nature which often were more lectures than discussions but he wasn’t quite as religious about it as Arenea was. Despite that they said that you had to watch yourself and everything you said and did around him because if he deemed anything even slightly triggering or incorrect he will spend the next five hours explaining to you what you did wrong and how to change yourself and why what you did was wrong in the first place. Even Porrim, who according to Rufioh and Horuss was practically Kankri’s mother, often got annoyed with him. Apparently, she was more into feminism than anything else and found Kankri’s focus on equality between races and dragon types instead of feminism annoying. Neither Rufioh or Horuss spent much time with her so they couldn’t say much more than she could be flirty and even slutty when she wanted to but still had more self-respect than both of them combined. I could tell that if they spent more time with this confident lady they probably wouldn’t have so many issues in their bond. To be honest she was one person I was actually kind of excited to meet. Motherly and confident like Roxy only even more so was something I could get behind. Too bad she got paired with who Rufioh and Horuss claimed to be a really selfish heat dragon named Meenah. They said that she fell right into the stereotype of dragons loving gold that still somewhat persists after many many many years of it being proved fault. She’s very greedy and money hungry though power isn’t something she wants so much. They also say that she doesn’t really have a concept of property, believing that even if it’s really obvious someone owns something that if it’s not on their person or in their home that you can take it and resell it for cash. According to Rufioh, she’ll even steal small things that she thinks people won’t notice if she swipes from inside their homes. You aren’t so much looking forward to meeting her.

Their parents must all be close or something because many of Nepeta and Equius’s friends are the siblings of Rufioh and Horuss’s friends.

For example, Nepeta and Equius also knew Tavros and his dragon Gamzee who you remember from the ceremony. You already knew a lot about Tavros, shy and gentle with a love for animals and card games along with Peter Pan and fairies, but they did say a bit about Gamzee too. According to them, Gamzee was a very chill dude most of the time, zoning out often but being a pretty good listener if you came to him with serious issues. Or at least that’s what Tavros and one of their other friends had told them. He was pretty weird though, having lots of interests unique to him that didn’t make sense to anyone else including juggalos and some weird drink called Faygo. He apparently had a thing for horns to the point of honking for no reason using his own voice sometimes. They did say that sometimes, on very very rare occasions, he would have mood swings that made him violent and incredibly aggressive. The only person who could calm him down during those times, including his bonded partner, was Karkat. No knew why and their friendship made little sense but it worked. They were incredibly close and something about Gamzee’s calm and lazy demeanor calmed Karkat’s shouty and angry personality if only a little. Gave him someone to vent to who wouldn’t judge him or something. Karkat was a very caring person and everyone could tell it but he showed his care for others by aggressively yelling at them about how dumb they are for doing what they’re doing and he got annoyed with people very easily. He was a very defensive person but aggressive too. Most people could tell that he just wanted his friends to be safe and happy though even if he often fought with them. As you know Karkat is bonded with Sollux, a gust dragon as you learned, who has lots of differences in his personality depending on the moment in time. Mood swings were kind of his thing along with the number two and colors red and blue. Hey, that rhymed. You’d have to remember to tell that to Dave so he could use it in his next rap if he wanted to. Anyway, yeah. He can be really depressed or pissed as fuck at any given time so you have to be kinda careful around him as you’re told. He does seem to have some interesting hobbies and things though so you might give hanging out with him a shot if he’s in a relatively good mood when you meet him. There was one person that apparently always put Sollux in a bad mood though, a human named Eridan. The guy was brothers with Cronus and shared a lot of his traits if a bit subdued along with some other more unique ones. He was desperate for someone to date though he wasn’t as flirty as Cronus and usually had only one target at a time while Cronus switched often depending on many different things. He got defensive fast and didn’t believe something unless he had proof or so he claimed, though sometimes he did do things and think things just because he wanted to without any real evidence. He was very egotistical and thought of himself as better than almost everyone around him expect for his dragon, Feferi. She was a liquid dragon who spent most of her days swimming around and she had a bond with fish despite also eating them a lot. Sometimes she would get Eridan to swim with her but mostly she did it on her own, swimming around and gathering fish both to care for and eat. She was said to be pretty friendly and cheerful by Nepeta though Equius did mention that she could be pretty sassy when mad and sometimes unintentionally so in a casual chat as well. There’s Kanaya that they knew as well who you know a bit about from Rose. Fancy and sophisticated, kind, motherly, caring, and intelligent even she can miss some details here and there sometimes. She sews and makes clothing a lot and enjoys a fair bit of reading as well, a perfect match for your sister if you do say so yourself. Finally, there’s just one more bonded pair that they know. The human is named Terezi and Nepeta comments right away that she’s fun to roleplay with. You aren’t really into that yourself but you figure it means she must be imaginative which you can get behind. Equius mentions that she is blind but can see through… Licking and sniffing things? What the actual fuck. Weird but ok. Equius doesn’t seem fond of her habit at all. You guess it’s a bit gross for him or something. He also mentions she can be a bit of a trickster and knows how to get her way when she wants something. She’s apparently a bit indecisive and highly curious about any secrets anyone might hide which just about puts you off of her forever. You really don’t want her tricking you into divulging all your secrets to her. Her bonded partner is a gust dragon named Vriska who Rufioh recognizes as related to his dad’s dragon. Equius doesn’t seem to like her all that much despite Nepeta commenting that he and she do sometimes spend time together. Apparently, she’ll highjack role plays she does with Terezi too if she’s around during one of them. The general idea you’re getting from the both of them is avoid Vriska because she is a manipulative bitch who will get you killed so she can laugh at your corpse about how stupid you must’ve been. Good to know. They don’t spend much time on her and before you know it they’re saying that that’s everyone. 

You go over the list a few more times in your head to try and get a scale of just how many people there are total and to be honest even split into groups you aren’t looking forward to this many people coming into your life and having to engage with all of them. You really hope that Jake ends up chickening out. 

Oh, who are you kidding this is Jake there’s no way he’ll chicken out on anything and especially not something like this that comes so much simpler to him than it does to you. 

You’re doomed.


	19. Exploration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake and Dirk explore a temple together

Over the next couple of weeks you make quite a few new friends, meeting everyone described to you and learning more about them. You quickly find that some are friendlier than others but no matter what you consider them all your pal now and that’s what matters to you. With so many new friends under your belt, you consider that adventure officially conquered and decide to move back to exploring around. Especially since Aradia gave you a tip of a temple nearby when she was talking to you and the others. The only reason you hadn’t found it before now was because it was at the bottom of a ravine you’d never been able to get down alone. But now that you had Dirk it would be as simple as flying down with him!

You were so excited to finally explore something new and unknown again. Dirk was waiting for you when you came downstairs after packing up your bag full of exploring gear and slinging it onto your back. Dirk ran through a checklist with you to make sure you had remembered everything which you were incredibly grateful for. You couldn't count how many times you’d left on an adventure only to realize you forgot something you needed. And that was when you knew exactly what you would need for that trial rather than just grabbing everything! Once Dirk has confirmed that you have everything you hop onto his back and head out of the house. 

It’s not too hard to find the ravine once you take to the skies. It cuts right through the middle of the forest about twenty to thirty miles away from your house and goes as far as the eye can see in either direction even from way up near the clouds. You’ve never been on the other side before though your grandmother claims she was once when she was younger and her dragon was alive. Maybe you’ll go there with Dirk some other time after this temple adventure. 

Dirk descends carefully down into the ravine. It’s large enough across to hold about three full-grown dragons side by side but Dirk is still very careful not to let his wings hit the sides. You take the time during the slow descent to admire the stone on the sides of the ravine. Most of it is a light orange or tan, just a bit lighter than Dirk’s scales in fact. You’ve found yourself getting more and more of the color as you’ve bonded with Dirk. That stripes of darker rock through the lighter rock form interesting patterns all over. There are quite a few spirals all over and here and there are a few sparkles dotting the rock. As you watch the rock Dirk lands gently and looks around the spot where you’ve ended up. There’s no sign of the temple but you both expected that. It wouldn’t make sense for it to be too far from the dragon mountain. So Dirk starts down the ravine after you slide off his back, preferring to be able to walk and explore the area freely rather than ride him until you reach the temple. Down at the bottom of the ravine, the sparkles you spotted further up are much more plentiful and a few of them are larger too. You can just barely tell them to be some kind of lime green gem and some other kind of red gem. Possibly some peridot and ruby. You weren’t sure and you weren’t an expert in gemstones and neither was anyone in your family so you had no way of finding out if your guesses were correct. No matter what they were they added a nice sparkle throughout the plain rock along with the few patches of green vegetation that managed to grow down here and along the walls. 

You and Dirk walk in silence, just looking all around until you spot the temple in the distance and instantly start racing towards it in excitement. The thing is much larger than you thought it would be and it sticks right out of the side of the ravine. In fact it’s the side of the ravine that, if the temple leads to the top of the ravine, you would be on the side you’ve never explored before! You might just get to see that side of the ravine today after all! The sides of the temple look like dark green Greek pillars and stand at about twenty feet tall before connecting to the top which is a dark green triangle in the same style with a strange spiral shape right below the point. The spiral was made of the same gems as were scattered around the walls of the ravine, one curling line red and the other lime green. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before and it fascinates you. 

As soon as Dirk catches up with you you both head inside. There are no torches on the wall but luckily you brought your own from own. You have a flashlight too just in case but you like the explorer vibe of the torch. Besides, it’s not like its hard to make fire with Dirk on your side! He can see fine due to his dragon dark vision so after you manage to feel out and retrieve the torch from your bag he easily lights it for you. With it’s light you can see that the inside of the temple uses the rock walls of the ravine as its walls as well, presumably just mining through and then leaving it.

For a while that’s all it is, a straight pathway deeper and deeper into the rock until finally, you come across a large circular room. All over the wall are twelve symbols you don’t understand. It’s about twenty feet across to get to the other side of the room where another door is just like the one outside. You scan the room for anything and look over the symbols for a while before the drive to explore sends you further into the temple. The next pathway ends up splitting a little ways down it and you decide to go right first. There you find a smaller room much like the first one, this one only ten feet across. All along the walls of this one are more symbols only these ones you can recognize as zodiac signs. There's only half of them here however. You can see the Gemini sign just above the door you came in and from there from right to left you can see the Pisces sign, the Aquarius sign, the Leo sign, the Aries sign, and finally the Sagittarius sign. You can’t help but wonder where the other ones are and why only these ones are here. You head forward through a door on the other side only to find it merges with a path from the room the path had split from. Dirk seems annoyed at the uselessness of the split but for you it’s just a convenient way to get back to explore the other room. The other room is identical to the one you just left besides which signs are on the walls. Here you find the remaining six signs. The Cancer sign, then the Libra sign, then the Capricorn sign, the Taurus sign, the Scorpio sign, and finally the Virgo sign. You didn’t notice it at first in the other room but as you step closer to tell the Scorpio sign from the Virgo sign your torch manages to glint off of paint on the signs, revealing them all to be painted in different individual colors. After rechecking the other room you do a tally with Dirk to confirm that you are remembering everything correctly.

“In the right room there is a yellow Gemini sign, a fuschia Pisces sign, a violet Aquarius sign, an olive Leo sign, a burgundy Aries sign, and a dark blue Sagittarius sign.” Dirk nods in confirmation and you are really glad that Gran took great care to teach you a wide variety of colors when you were younger so you could tell plants apart easier. “And in the left room there is a grey Cancer sign, a teal Libra sign, a purple Capricorn sign, a brown Taurus sign, a cerulean Scorpio sign, and a dark green Virgo sign.” Dirk finishes the list off for you and you nod. All of what you’ve found so far has been incredibly odd but also very very fascinating as well.

With what you’ve seen so far firmly under your belt you finally continue down the path. 

At the end of the now recombined paths there is a very small room. Dirk can’t even fit inside it while in the ten foot rooms he just had to squeeze down. This one is only about five feet across and the roof is much lower too at just barely seven feet up. In the center of this room is what almost seems to be a nest. Hay is piled up and in the center there’s the indent classic to any nest. It’s too large for a bird, and you don’t know of any birds that makes nests underground anyway, which leaves only some sort of large lizard or a dragon. But then again the room is very small so if it is a dragon nest the egg will have had to have been taken away from whatever dragon laid it in order to hatch here. It’s very strange and you have no real answers for what could’ve happened here nor does Dirk. You brainstorm between yourselves for a long time but in the end all you two know is that it’s likely a dragon egg nest made by a human who somehow got a dragon egg. Why they would then hatch this egg in this temple is as unclear as how or why they had the egg in the first place.

Luckily for Dirk, there aren’t any more doors past the small room. The temple was very short and there wasn’t much to explore but it was certainly very interesting to make up for it and it’s left you and Dirk both with a lot of questions to ponder over. You might have to chat with Aradia later about what she thinks and you’ll definitely ask Gran for her opinion. 

You both talk about what you saw as you head back out of the temple together. “That was fairly interesting don’t you think chap?” He nods in response to you. “Definitely though it makes me wonder just what all happened here and if it still plays into anything happening right now.” You nod and with his words you can’t help but think back to Rose’s story about the first human and dragon to bond. What if this place had something to do with them? That certainly would make it still play a role in today. Maybe the dragon laid an egg at some point but wasn’t able to take care of it so the human did, showing the dragon once and for all just how trustworthy humans could be. That certainly would make this a very important place! You share your idea with Dirk and he thinks about it for a while. “That really would be interesting if that was the case. Maybe the dragon got injured protecting the human from something and couldn’t take care of the egg so the human did leading them to take care of even more eggs together and start the population of dragons in the world.” “That would be amazing! I wonder what Gran will think about all of this.” He shrugs. “She’ll find it interesting at the very least.” You chuckle and nod. 

It’s not long before you’re back at the entrance to the cave again and you hop back on Dirk’s back to allow him to take to the skies again and get you home.

Once you’re both back you quickly slide off Dirk’s back and rush inside, excited to tell your grandmother about what you discovered and see what she thinks about it. When you find her in her study she’s talking with Aradia already which just makes it even easier to kill two birds with one stone so to speak even if it’s a bit strange. You gloss right over the weirdness of the situation and jump right into what you and Dirk found in that temple as Dirk stands beside you, only having his head poke through the doorway you stand in as to not crowd the room. 

“Gran Dirk and I just explored that new temple Aradia recommended we check out and you’ll never guess what we found there!” Your grandma chuckles and asks what you found and with some help from Dirk in remembering the details you explain what all you saw. She seems to take just as much interest in it as you do and mentions a connection both you and Dirk missed. “Isn’t every one of your new friends and their siblings one of the zodiac signs and don’t they correlate to that color or at least one similar?” When you think about it they really do. From what you remember each one of the sibling pairs do match up to one zodiac sign and all the dragons do have scales mainly of the color on the symbols or at least have one close. The humans are a bit harder but from favorite colors and colors of clothing, you can tell that they all correlate as well. It’s certainly a strong coincidence and you turn to Aradia to find out if she made the same connection. She almost seems impressed with your grandma’s deduction skills and nods along to her connection but doesn’t say anything. It’s enough, however, to tell you that she had already made the connection previously which makes sense since she’s been friends with all those guys for longer and even is a part of the group herself. It’s all very strange and weird but you brush it off and focus on the coolness of it all. “How awesome would it be if all of you were part of some prophecy or something from some ancient time?” Once again Aradia has a vague vibe of being impressed but shows no signs of it on her face and nods. “That would be pretty cool. Weird, but cool.” Dirk agrees with you, eyeing Aradia. You get so excited that you decide you have to share this all with Jade so with a final wave to Aradia and your grandmother you dash off to find your sister.


	20. Perspective change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A surprise look into others lives

You are woken up in the morning by screaming. Great. Mituna must be visiting again. It’s better than him living with you still but jesus can’t a guy have some peace and quiet when he’s trying to sleep? It’s bad enough that you could hear Sollux shuffling around for most of the night last night, therefore, keeping you up and now being woken up at some ungodly hour by the screaming a brain dead dragon? Just fucking perfect.

You groan and try to cover your head with your pillow to drown out the sound but it’s useless. He’s too loud and you can hear Mituna right through it. Stupid dragon vocal cords. 

Finally, you give in and get up, going over to grab your normal outfit before heading for a shower. After your shower, you try and fail at taming your hair just like every other day and give up on it after five minutes and head downstairs to yell at people for waking you up as well as grab some breakfast after you drop off your dirty pajamas in your bedroom. Ugh by the looks of it you’ll need to do the laundry soon. Great. You stomp down the stairs to find that not only is Mituna over but Cronus is too. Just perfect. This exactly how you wanted your morning to go. Yep. At least Cronus didn’t bring Eridan along this time. He’s your friend sure but you can only take that guy in controlled doses. And you’d prefer not to ever interact with his brother ever but since he got paired with Mituna you have no hope of that ever happening.

Sollux is predictably already downstairs glaring at his brother, having just finished his breakfast himself. He doesn’t like his brother too much either but as brothers, they do have a certain bond just like you and Kankri do. Besides, he has his own reasons for disliking Mituna beyond the reasons you do. You join Sollux in a glare at the now giggling hysterically Mituna for a moment before sighing and getting yourself some food. You were running out again which was to be expected in a home situation like yours but all the same, it was annoying. And to make matters worse it seems Sollux ate the last of the honey again so you don’t even have any to put on your waffles. There’s no syrup either so you just have to eat it plain and already you’re in a bad mood. You’re usually in some sort of bad mood but still. 

Once Mituna finally goes off to go find his dad you think you might get a chance to relax for a little while.

Then Cronus sits beside you.

Ugh. 

“Hey, sweet cheeks. What’re you up too?” You’ll never understand how his accent works or how Eridan ended up with a slightly different one from his dad and brother and to be honest you’d rather die than ever even give this douche a dash of hope that you like him in any capacity. But he and Mituna already have a shitty enough partnership so you don’t want to be the reason it gets even fucking worse. “Eating. Alone.” You hope he catches the hint and leaves you alone but if he does catch on he doesn’t leave. “Well, that doesn’t seem fair. What, your partner not wanting to sit next to you?” You know he’s trying to play sympathetic but it’s disgusting and you can’t help but feel like he meant to insult you and Sollux as well. And as much as Sollux gets on your nerves you’re not just about to let this asshole insult him. “He’s busy making sure your partner doesn’t hurt himself before he finds his dad, something you should be doing instead fuckass.” You growl at him with a glare. He rolls his eyes. “Tuna’s completely brain dead. No point in trying to do anything for him. You, however, I’d do anything for.” His first sentences are bitter and cold like tea left out for too long but he makes the last one drip with more sweetness than a spoonful of liquid sugar. It’s disgusting how easily he flips between those and that he expects that to actually make you want to date him. First of all, the dude’s older than you by three fucking years and second of all he’s a complete dumbass and a huge douchebag. You flip him off and decide that even you can’t make his current partnership with Mituna any worse, leading to you standing and dropping off your plate and silverware in the sink as you hold and eat your remaining breakfast as you walk to retreat up to your bedroom. 

You manage to eat the rest of your waffle before you reach a blockade in your path in the form of Kankri lecturing Sollux on appropriate language right in your path with Mituna behind Kankri, making fun of him by copying his words and actions with an even higher sense of arrogance and pride in himself. It’s a wonder Kankri doesn’t hear Mituna’s giggles or catch on to Sollux’s smirk. Then again he’s probably so absorbed in his speech that dragon could crush half your house on accident and he wouldn’t even notice. It’s nice to see one of the moments where Mituna and Sollux are bonding happily though. It’s not that moments like that are especially rare but they are uncommon and seeing Sollux grin at something is uncommon in its own right as well. All the same, you still need to get to your room and they are in the way.

“Kankri you long-winded idiot let me through. I need to get to my room and you’re in the fucking way.” You say angrily to your other brother who stutters to a stop in the middle of his rambling to look at you unhappily. He doesn’t like being interrupted and you are not an exception to that rule. “Karkat, please. I am trying to inform Sollux on just how triggering his words were.” Oh boy. Mituna and Sollux must’ve been tossing back and forth insults for fun again. “How do you expect Sollux to learn his lesson if I am interrupted by you every time I try to teach him?” You groan and Sollux snickers, earning himself a glare from you. “There isn’t anything you can fucking teach other of these dumbasses trust me.” Mituna gives a high pitched giggle and Kankri frowns even deeper. “That is no way to think.” “Just fuck off fuckass.” You growl, pushing past your brother in order to continue towards your room. You’re lucky and manage to get inside and close the door before Kankri can open his mouth to start lecturing you instead of the other two. 

It’s an hour before you see Sollux again, him being the only one, in the family at least, to ever be smart enough to get past the lock you put on your door. Smartass knows exactly how to make the air move to break in and it pisses you off. You guess it’s good to have someone to talk to though.

“Hey KK.” You don’t know why he insists on using that nickname but it’s better than some of the other ones people have given you over the years so you’ve learned to deal with it. “What do you want?” You turn to him, scowl on your face like usual. He chuckles. “Apparently Tuna came over cause Rufioh had him meeting someone new tomorrow.” You raise an eyebrow. “Wait, like how Nepeta pestered the shit out of us yesterday to meet someone tomorrow too?” Sollux nods and you can feel your eyebrows furrow. That’s really weird and either a huge coincidence or some kind of conspiracy. It wouldn’t make too much sense though. As far as you know the only connections Rufioh and Nepeta have are that Equius and Horuss are brothers and Tavros but Nepeta isn’t super close with Tavros even if they are friends since Tavros is allergic to cats which Nepeta loves to the point of nearly always having cat fur somewhere on her clothing whether it be from a wild cat or an actually tamed one and besides, you just don’t see Rufioh and Nepeta being close enough to plan something against you.

So what the fuck is going on?

“What the fuck. That can’t be a coincidence right?” Your bonded partner shrugs and you frown deeper. He’s in one of his indecisive moods again. Great. You groan but decide that you’ll just have to wait and see the next whether or not Nepeta and Rufioh planned this. 

The next day comes along after a day of screaming and even more mood swings from Sollux than normal. You’re lucky to have gotten anything done at all. This time when you are awoken from your slumber it is by a strong gust of wind knocking you out of bed rather than screaming. You jump to your feet and face Sollux who is clearly in one of his pissy moods again. He only ever does that when he’s in one of his pissy moods. “What the fuck was that for asshole?” You growl at him angrily. “Time to go duh.” It takes a moment for it to register what he means but when it does you freak out just a bit. You’re supposed to be going to meet Nepeta’s new friends today and you overslept so bad thanks to your early wake-up yesterday that you aren’t even dressed and you have to get going. “Shit.” You rush to grab some clothes, forgoing a shower today and just hoping deodorant is enough as well as leaving your hair as it is even though that means it’s a bit messier than usual which is really saying something with your hair. You rush to get whatever you happen to grab on and yell at Sollux. “You should've woken me up earlier you fucking dumbass!” He rolls his eyes at you. “Whatever. You’re up now.” You glare at him but you know from experience, lots of it, that when he gets in one of these moods it’s no use to fight with him even if you really want to. 

You grab some toast for breakfast and Sollux makes sure you are painfully aware of the cliche as you rush out of the house. It’s not too long before you reach the agreed upon meet-up spot, a small area of town where some of the less popular shops are that’s big enough to hold about five teenage dragons at its maximum along with some humans. Luckily not that many people are there when you arrive. Instead, it’s just a dragon and human you don’t recognize who you assume are a bonded pair along with Mituna, Latula, and Cronus. Mituna isn’t too much of a surprise and Latula’s probably there to help him and shit since Sollux isn’t much help if he gets in a bad mood which he often does and besides Latula and Mituna are pretty close. Cronus is probably only here for the chance to hit on Latula since he hates Mituna. That and he’s probably checking out the new guys to see if he has any chance with them. Knowing Cronus no matter who these people are he’s got no chance with them.

They all turn to look at you as you run up, Sollux at your side. You’re short compared to people your age and everyone here is at least a few years older than you besides Sollux who has the advantage of being a dragon much less his family’s inclination towards being tall as fuck even if they are all skinny too. In fact, thanks to Sollux’s size he was able to keep up with you running without even truly running so he’s fine while your lungs feel like they’re about to burst as you pant. Sure you’re used to exercising but rushing to get ready and then running all the way here has tired you out. The new dragon is the first to speak up. “So I’m guessing you’re the two one's Nepeta and Equius invited to this little party?” Sollux replies for you since you’re still catching your breath. “Yep. That’s us.” The dragon nods and the human speaks next, his bright smile and cheerful voice contrasting to an almost startling degree against his bonded partner’s smooth and neutral face and voice. “Well, it’s great to meet you chaps! I’m Jake and this is Dirk!” He gestures to the dragon who gives a little nod of recognition when you glance up at him. You’ve caught your breath at this point and speak next. “Hey. Sorry, we were late. Some dumbass forgot to wake me up on time since I slept in thanks to an early wake up from another dumbass.” You glare at both Captors before continuing. “I’m Karkat and that asshole is Sollux.” You nod towards the yellow dragon beside you and get another nod from Dirk while Jake smiles wider and speaks again. “I remember seeing you two get paired at the ceremony not long ago!” You scowl and fight a blush that threatens to encroach on your face. Don’t get you wrong you know that everyone’s eyes were on you while you were getting paired, of course they were with your father, but did he really have to say it?

Latula cuts in, clearly eager to continue whatever conversation they were having before and you zone out for a while, not caring about what they’re talking about. You feel the familiar sensation of eyes on you after a bit and look up towards where you feel it from to see that Dirk is staring at you. Well more like he’s watching you and Sollux closely but still. It feels almost as though he’s trying to get inside your head, trying to figure out exactly what you want and why you’re here. Well, heads up fucker you’re only here because you have nothing better to do and because Nepeta promised to buy you tickets to that new rom-com if you went.

Things go pretty smoothly beyond that and you do talk quite a bit once Jake changes the topic around to movies. Dirk and Sollux seem to get along and while you barely know these guys and you don’t have anything in common with them really they’re ok people so of course, that means your brain categorizes them as friends. 

Whatever it’s not like it’s a big deal whether or not they’re your friends.


	21. Thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sollux deals with a thief

You don’t sleep often. Captors in general don’t tend to be great sleepers. Vantases either but they’re better than Captors are and for some reason Kankri and Mituna are the best about sleep out of the six of you. Anyway yeah, you don’t sleep often. And you aren’t sleeping now. But it’s the middle of the night and you don’t really have anything to do. So you’re bored out of your mind. Like most nights. However on most nights this would just lead to you sitting in bed having way too deep thoughts and basically further sinking yourself in a depression and causing yourself to have several existential crises. This night however seemed determined to change that pattern. 

It started with your realization that yeah, Karkat had been asleep for two hours and it was two in the morning and you still weren’t even tired. Karkat and you had always shared a room even before you had become bonded partners which came with some difficulties but some benefits too like someone to talk to sometimes when you didn’t sleep but a lot of the time you were alone to get through the night. The only thing is tonight you weren’t kept up by your brain not shutting down like usual but instead you felt antsy. Your body felt heavy with a need for rest but at the same time it felt alive with a need to move. And unlike a human you couldn’t just toss and turn to test if you were just in the wrong sleeping position or to relieve it. Instead you would have to get up, walk around the room at the very least and pray you didn’t wake anyone up, and then lay down again and hope sleep came. You were not looking forward to the process but it was inevitable anyway so you might as well get it over fast and get rid of the annoying feeling as quick as possible. 

As such you stand up and cringe as the floorboards creak under your first footstep. The house is pretty big so you pray that no one is close enough to hear that but Karkat who grumbles and turns over but stays asleep. You had to take as gentle of steps as you could to get out of the room, thankful that the door was creaky too, and leave the danger zone. If you woke Karkat up he would be pissed at you and when Karkat is actually legitimately pissed it’s not fun for anyone. And especially not for the guy who is expected to spend the most amount of time with him. Thankfully you get out without awakening the beast. Your shared bedroom is right at the end of the hallway by the stairs thankfully enough so you get out of the bedroom filled upper floor and down to the lower floor without any trouble. The floor downstairs is a lot less noisy because of course it fucking is but at least it means that if your dad is up too you have less of a chance of disturbing him from where he’s probably working or reorganizing in the study him and Karkat’s dad share. Both of them are so fucking smart it would scare you if they didn’t use it the way they did. But whatever. Right now all your focused on is walking around aimlessly and maybe grabbing a snack. In fact the first place you head towards is the kitchen because grabbing a snack actually is sounding pretty good despite the fact that you aren’t even really hungry at all.

To get to the kitchen though you have to pass by the front door and when you do you notice that it’s open. Not by a lot, just slightly ajar, but it’s still unlocked and open. Who the fuck would have the balls to break in here much less want to break in here? Well you guess your dad and Karkat’s dad do have a few enemies but ones that would break in? You don’t really think that’s their style. So then who is it? And where are they now?

You are much more careful and cautious now, keeping your eyes peeled for any sign of who it could be that decided breaking and entering into your house was a good idea and something they wanted to do. You don’t end up seeing anything until you reach the kitchen at which point you spot the cabinet door open just a bit. You go to check it out and find one of the bananas is missing. It’s not something anyone in your house is too especially fond of so the only reason anyone would notice it’s absence is if they’re looking for it. You wonder if the thief knows that somehow.

You’re about to call the trail cold when you catch a whiff of the scent of a human just beyond the wall that leads from the kitchen to the dining room. From there there’s another door to the living room and then a back exit from there. Maybe the thief is trying to make their escape. You follow the door outside and just barely manage to catch the glimpse of a retreating human ducking into the trees a ways away. You contemplate leaving it be and heading back inside but you decide you’ve come too far to just drop this now. Besides you still aren't’ tired enough to sleep so why the fuck not.

You follow the form out into the trees and thanks to your larger size you are able to catch up to the person pretty quickly. It’s a small girl who looks to be about your age or younger and sure enough she’s got a half finished banana in hand. She’s got curly and messy white hair and her skin is pretty dark leading to her nearly blending in with the dark of the woods. She must’ve heard you though because she turns to face you nervously. Her eyes are a bright green that practically glow in the dark and she's got small freckles dotting her dark skin. Well no time like the present to get some answers right?

“Who are you and why did you break into our house?” You kick up just a slight breeze in case this human can tell you are still kinda young so you can intimidate them a bit. “Oh dear... My name is Calliope. I’m sorry I just haven’t had fresh food in so long. I can find something to repay you with if you’d like.” Between this and the open doors at your house you’re almost certain this girl has never stolen anything before. That really didn’t make you feel great about your home’s security to be honest. You’ll have to talk to the adults about getting a better lock on your door later. But first why did she need to steal from you just to get fresh fruit? “So you’re saying you decided to break into my house just to get some fruit? What the fuck.” “I’m really sorry. I can’t say much beside that I haven’t had fresh food in awhile.” You can’t help but feel suspicious about an answer like that. She broke into your house and then says that she can’t tell you why? Not a great thing to hear. 

She seems to pick up on the fact that you don’t exactly trust her answer and winces. “I truly am sorry. I can repay you if you’ll let me keep the rest of the banana.” You’re a little taken aback by that. She thought you were going to take away that thing? It was half eaten already why the fuck would you want it? “What? I don’t want the banana. I just wanted to know why the fuck you broke into our house, stole only a banana, and then left again.” She lets out a breath of relief and smiles. “Oh well that’s all I can really say about that. Sorry again.” You shake your head but sigh. “Whatever. Just don’t do it again or whatever.” You turn around to leave, really not caring if she does it again. She seems harmless enough so it doesn’t really matter to you. You hear her calling out her thanks to you as you head back out of the forest. 

Once out of the woods you head back inside and close all the doors before heading upstairs and laying down again. Or trying to anyway. You manage one step into the room before the creaky floors awaken Karkat who groans as you wince. Fuck. At least he probably won’t yell while everyone else is still asleep. You hope.

You head inside the rest of the way and close the door while Karkat wakes up the rest of the way. Once he is up he glares at you, sitting up in his bed. “And just what the fuck were you doing that required you to wake me up at who-the-fuck-cares-o'clock?” You roll your eyes at him. “Couldn’t sleep. Some girl broke in and stole a banana.” You try to distract him for your mistake before he can start ranting at you and you sure seem to catch his attention. “The fuck? What are you fucking talking about?” You shrug. “Some girl around our age named Calliope broke in and stole a banana from us.” He narrows his eyes at you accusingly. “And just how do you know her name?” You roll your eyes again but answer him anyway. “I followed her duh. I caught her slipping out in the woods and went after her. She was pretty cryptic but she seemed harmless and she really only wanted and took the banana so I let her go.” Karkat’s jaw drops as you talk but you just keep acting as if what you did was totally normal and something everyone else would do. You know it isn’t but honestly you could give less shits what other people think about you as long as you still get to do whatever the fuck you want to. Besides, it was just a banana. Who knows maybe that girl was poor or abused or some shit and you just saved her from starvation by letting her have that banana. Sure the fresh fruit line and the fact that she only took one piece of food would be a little weird then but she seemed pretty polite so maybe that was the reason at least for the second thing. You almost wish you had asked her more questions before your indifference got the better of you and you turned to leave.

Karkat doesn’t seem too happy with your answer though. “You did what?!” “Dude calm down you’re going to wake up everyone else and then we’ll both be in deep shit.” You warn. Karkat glares at you. “Well excuse me for thinking it’s weird that you let a fucking robber just walk free without any fucking proof that they didn’t do it and instead proof that they did do it!” You glare back at him. “She’s a little girl and we don’t know why she stole it. She said sorry like five times when I approached her and she actually seemed sorry. Even offered to repay us somehow.” Karkat frowns but seems to take this the same way you did. That girl likely needs that fruit more than you do. “Fine but I’m not going to fucking explain this to dad in the morning.” You scoff. “I doubt he’ll even notice anything is different. You know no one in this house eats the bananas. The only reason they’re even here is because Kanaya’s mom brings them every once and a while in the hopes someone will eat them. Which hey, technically someone is.” Karkat glares at you for your sass but relents that what you say is true leading to you smirking. 

The two of your do your normal schedule from there of having arguments as quietly as possible with plenty of teasing from your side of the deal until its morning and you and Karat aren’t the only people awake anymore.

Even with you and Karkat not being the only ones awake anymore you are the first ones to get downstairs for breakfast and when you peek into the cupboard you find something that hadn’t been there before. A little thank you note and a very small green gem of some sort that you didn’t quite recognize. The note thanked you, or rather the friendly yellow dragon, for letting the writer have a banana and even though you could already deduce who the note was from via that it also was signed in large curling letters by Calliope, the same name of the thief from the night before. So she’d come inside your house again after you’d gone upstairs just to leave a very incriminating note and a gem that likely was worth way more than a single banana even after you told her that it was fine and that she should just leave. Yeah you don’t really think you have anything to worry about with her. You take both things before anyone else can see it instead of you and tuck it under your wing until you have finished eating and can safely head upstairs to hide it in with the rest of your junk. With that taken care of you go about the rest of the day without sparing a single thought to the thief who stole a banana and left behind a gem.


	22. AN: Discontinued

I'm really really sorry to have to say this but I'm discontinuing this story. I had a ton of fun writing it but it's become a chore for me and I just can't get up the inspiration for it anymore. I'm not cut out for writing chapter stories or really even long stories in a lot of cases and this is the longest story I've ever written mostly because of how much you guys seem to enjoy it. I really wish I could keep going with it but I just can't and I'm really sorry about that. Thank you all so much for reading anyway!


End file.
